“Therefore ye shall see no more vanity, nor divine divinations: for I will deliver my people out of your hand: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.”
My Notes
What Does Ezekiel 13:23 Mean?
"Therefore ye shall see no more vanity, nor divine divinations: for I will deliver my people out of your hand: and ye shall know that I am the LORD." God addresses the false prophets directly: your visions of vanity are OVER. Your divinations are FINISHED. Because God is delivering His people OUT OF YOUR HAND. The false prophets had the people in their GRIP — their lies held the community captive. God's deliverance is FROM the false prophets, not just from the enemy.
The phrase "see no more vanity" (lo techezeinah shav — you will no longer see emptiness/falsehood) means the false prophets' 'seeing' is terminated: their visions — the empty, deceptive revelations they claimed to receive — are stopped. The seeing that was never real seeing is now explicitly ended. The lies they called visions are no longer available to them.
The "deliver my people out of your hand" (vehitztzalti et ammi miyadkhem — I will rescue My people from your hand) reveals that the false prophets were HOLDING the people: the people were in the false prophets' HAND — their grip, their control, their influence. The deliverance isn't from an external enemy. It's from the internal false teachers who held God's people captive through deception.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What deceptive voice has your life in its grip — and is God delivering you from it?
- 2.How does deliverance from false prophets being as necessary as deliverance from enemies change your view of spiritual danger?
- 3.What 'vanity' — what empty vision sold as truth — needs to be permanently terminated in your life?
- 4.What does God rescuing His people FROM the grip of their own teachers teach about internal captivity?
Devotional
No more fake visions. No more false divinations. God is rescuing His people FROM YOUR HAND — from the grip of the false prophets who held them captive through lies. The deliverance isn't from Babylon. It's from the liars who claimed to speak for God.
The 'see no more vanity' terminates the false prophets' business: their 'seeing' — the visions of emptiness they sold as divine revelation — is shut down. The prophecy factory closes. The vision-production stops. The seeing that was never genuine seeing is now explicitly, permanently ended. God doesn't reform the false prophets. He blinds them.
The 'deliver my people out of your hand' redefines the captivity: the people weren't just captive to Babylon. They were captive to their OWN false prophets. The lies had a GRIP. The deceptions held the people in a hand — controlling their decisions, shaping their expectations, directing their behavior. The false prophets' influence was a form of captivity as real as Babylonian exile.
The deliverance FROM false prophets is as important as deliverance from foreign enemies: God doesn't just rescue from external threats. He rescues from internal deception. The liberation isn't complete when the Babylonian chains are removed. It's complete when the false prophets' grip is broken. The people need to be freed from the lies that held them as much as from the armies that conquered them.
What false prophet — what deceptive voice, what empty vision — has your life in its grip? And is God delivering you from that hand?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
A rebuke to the false prophetesses, and a declaration that God will confound them, and deliver their victims from their…
Ye shall see no more vanity - They pretended visions; but they were empty of reality.
Nor divine divinations - As God…
As God has promised that when he pours out his Spirit upon his people both their sons and their daughters shall…
The judgment of God is at hand which shall make an end of all false prophecy and divination. Ch. Eze 12:24; Mic 3:6-7;…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture