“And you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their own heart, and you prophesy against them. And say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Woe to the women who sew pillows (or armbands) on all joints of the hands (wrists and/or elbows), and make kerchiefs (shrouds) for the head of people of all heights to hunt lives. Will you hunt the lives of my people, and save those that are yours for yourselves? And you have profaned me among my people for a handful of barley, and for pieces of bread, to kill those who should not die, and to save those alive who should not live, by your lying to my people who listen and respond to lies.”
Those being prophesied against clearly participated in magic practises. The passage is difficult to translate simply because we do not know enough about magic practises in ancient Palestine. In Babylonia the magical binding of the wrists is witnessed, the purpose of which was to ‘enforce' the binding power of a spell or incantation. That may well be what is in mind here. The ‘shrouds' are long pieces of cloth that went over the head and reached down to the ground, covering the person from head to foot. They were used in order to ‘hunt persons'. Possibly the purpose of these was to enable the person so covered to reach out magically through spells or curses, while insulated against the natural world, to cause harm to their enemies. Perhaps it was to give the illusion of astral travel, the body supposed to disappear while under the shroud, and travelling magically to do its evil work on the enemy. Alternately it may be that the shrouds were impregnated with magic and thrown over the victim, or over some effigy or object belonging to him, ‘imprisoning' him within the spell.
‘Will you hunt the persons of my people, and save those that are yours for yourselves?' The purpose of the witchcraft was that those who submitted to the witchcraft (and paid for it) would be saved alive, for they were involved in the witchcraft and protected beneath the shroud, but those who were their enemies, who would be God's own people, would be slain. There may well have been examples known, brought about by the combination of communication of what was happening and autosuggestion.
‘And you have profaned me among my people by a handful of barley, and by pieces of bread, to kill those who should not die, and to save those alive who should not live, by your lying to my people who listen and respond to lies.'
Here the idea is probably of magic rites involving handfuls of barley and pieces of bread, possibly tossed onto a flat surface to be ‘read' (like tea leaves), the reading intended to result in death for the victim in mind. That the reading had to be communicated to the victim is suggested by the last phrase. It would seem that some of God's people were on the whole so weak and unbelieving that they accepted the truth of what they heard and died by autosuggestion. Among those who superstitiously believed in the witchcraft the suggestion that they were cursed might well produce death through fear and hopelessness, and lack of a will to live.
For the use of barley and bread in worship compare the cakes to the Queen of Heaven (Jeremiah 7:18. See also Ezekiel 44:17-19). Thus eating the bread may have been part of the spell.
‘To kill those who should not die.' They had done nothing to deserve death, and therefore what was done was a form of murder. ‘To save those alive who should not live.' This may suggest that those who had done something worthy of death got rid of the witnesses and the accusers by this means, and so perverted justice. Or it may simply mean that the people in question were worthy of death for indulging in witchcraft (Leviticus 20:6; Leviticus 20:27; compare Leviticus 19:31; Deuteronomy 18:11; Deuteronomy 22:5; Isaiah 47:9; Isaiah 47:12-14).
‘By your lying to my people who listen and respond to lies.' It would seem that only those who believed what they were told were likely to suffer. Those who rejected such ideas in the power and name of Yahweh were not affected.