The False Prophetesses. But women, as well as men, contributed, and just as fatally, to the popular delusion. The false prophets were public men, who exercised an influence on politics; the false prophetesses corresponded roughly to our modern fortune-tellers, and wielded an enormous private influence over a people prone to superstition, and confused by the complexity of the situation. We have here a very vivid picture of their mysterious practices. They are seen sewing magic bands or amulets (not pillows) on to the wrists or elbows of their clients, and attaching long, flowing veils to their heads. The professed object of these superstitious practices is the capture and control of souls more plainly to slay and to spare, i.e. to determine their fate by a solemn prediction of death or good fortune, as the case may be. Ezekiel takes three objections to all this profane jugglery: (a) it is done for sordid gain (Ezekiel 13:19), (b) it was a desecration of the Divine name, which was invoked at these performances: but (c) almost worse, if possible, even than this, was the complete contempt shown by these fortune-tellers for the indissoluble relation between character and destiny, on which the true prophets so uniformly insisted: they pretended to be able, by their spells, to decree death to the innocent and life to the guilty. Their effect was to disintegrate the moral life of the community: consequently they, with all the implements of their nefarious trade, must be destroyed. [J. G. Frazer, at the close of his discussion on Absence and Recall of the Soul, says that Robertson Smith suggested to him that the practice of hunting souls denounced by Ezekiel may have been akin to those collected in this discussion (Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, p. 77). A. S. P.]
Ezekiel 13:17-23
17 Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy people, which prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy thou against them,
18 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes,e and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?
19 And will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies?
20 Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls to make them fly,f and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly.
21 Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
22 Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life:
23 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.