“In anger,
In wrath,
I will execute vengeance
On the nations
That did not obey.”
Yahweh was very serious. In his anger and wrath, he was going to execute vengeance on any country that did not obey him.
serious
Description of the false female prophetesses (Ezek 13:18-13:19)
“Thus says Yahweh God!
Say to them!
‘Woe to the women
Who sew bands
On all wrists!
Woe to the woman
Who make veils
For the heads of persons
Of every height,
In the hunt for human lives!
Will you hunt down lives
Among my people?
Will you maintain
Your own lives?
You have profaned me
Among my people
For handfuls of barley,
For pieces of bread.
You put to death
Persons
Who should not die.
You keep alive
Persons
Who should not live,
By your lies
To my people,
Who listen to lies.’”
Yahweh said to Ezekiel that these prophetesses should be cursed. Then he went into a description of their activities. One group of these female prophetesses sewed bands on the wrists of people. What exactly was that? Most commentators are not sure. It was some kind of band, pillow, or lucky charm on the arm by the wrist, elbow, or armpit. They also made veils or kerchiefs for the head. How they were hunting down human lives is not clear. However, they were profaning Yahweh with their lies. Apparently, they received a few handfuls of barley or pieces of bread for their activities. More serious is the fact that these women were sometimes asked to be judges. They would judge the innocence or guilt of a person, leading to their free life or the death penalty of a person, perhaps wrongly as indicated in this passage. Whatever their lies, the people of Israel were listening to them.
The pending crisis in the days to come (Isa 7:17-7:19)
“Yahweh will bring on you,
On your people,
On your ancestral house
Such days
As have not come
Since the day
That Ephraim
Departed from Judah.
Watch for the king of Assyria!
On that day,
Yahweh will whistle for the fly
That is at the sources
Of the streams of Egypt.
He will whistle for the bee
That is in the land of Assyria.
They will all come.
They will settle
In the steep ravines,
In the clefts of the rocks,
On all the thorn bushes,
On all the pastures.”
Isaiah predicts that things will not be good in the near future. Yahweh was going to bring bad things to the Israelites, their people, and their ancestral homes that they had not been seen since Ephraim split with Judah after the death of King Solomon. Yahweh would call out the king of Assyria with his bees to get together with Egypt and its flies to attack Judah. Yahweh, via Isaiah, had just reassured King Ahaz that Ephraim and Syria would fail in their attacks. However, this seems like another more serious attack from a combination of Assyria and Egypt. These attacking bees and flies would settle in the ravines, rocks, thorn bushes, and pastures.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 