Ezekiel 13:20 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

I am against (the same phrase Ezekiel 13:8) your pillows; the rite, and its signification too. There hunt the souls; either at Jerusalem, or wherever you give out answers. To make them fly: in this sense the word is no where else used, and thus used here renders the interpretation obscure. Elsewhere it is, to bud, as Numbers 17:8 Ezekiel 7:10; to blossom, Isaiah 27:6; to spring up as a flower or vine, Psalms 92:7 Song of Solomon 6:11; to grow, as Hosea 14:8. Thus the sense is obvious; by these lying ceremonies thus applied you promise a flourishing, growing state to all inquirers, and this is, the net with which you hunt souls. It is possible these prophetesses might bring their deceived ones into pleasant gardens, and (if well paid for it) entertain with all the pleasures of flowers and fruits; and might not these prophetesses be the priests of Flora, and seduce young, fair, wanton ones to the idolatry and brutish pleasures of the Floralia? I will tear them, with some violence and suddenness, that may express an indignation; as, 2 Kings 5:7, when the king of Israel rent his clothes at the hearing the letter of Benhadad king of Syria, so in wrath will God suddenly tear your enchanting and divining habits. From your arms; either from the arms of such as put them on when they consulted with these seducers; or may be the seducers might ordinarily wear them, to be known what they were. Will let the souls go: you held the souls of those that heard you as captives, or as bewitched with your enchantments and pleasures; but I will set them free, some I will enlighten to discover your frauds, others I will undeceive by sending them into captivity.