What Does Ezekiel 13:2 Mean?
Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, and say to the prophets who prophesy from their own hearts, Hear and respond to the word of the LORD.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word of the LORD;THE KEY
Prophecy can rise from a speaker’s own heart, while the LORD’s word is something to be heard.
THE MEANING
This verse places speech from a person’s own inner source beside the word of the LORD. A prophetic title and a message from the LORD are not the same thing. Here, hearing means receiving the word with a response, not merely hearing a sound.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A message must be the LORD’s word because its speaker claims to be a prophet.
THE ROOT
דְּבַר
dĕvar
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; a spoken matter, word, or thing.
In Hebrew, davar can name both a spoken word and a matter or thing. The LORD’s word is presented as something with substance to receive, in contrast with a message sourced in the speakers’ own inner lives.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
It shows that the LORD’s word is more than a sound or religious phrase; it carries a matter to be received.
dibber: To speak.
דִּבֵּר
The shared root links the spoken act to the matter spoken, sharpening the contrast between the LORD’s word and the prophets’ own source.
שִׁמְעוּ
shimʿū
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, heed, and respond.
“Hear and respond” in this verse is shimʿū. The command to hear carries more than sound entering the ear: shema can include a response. The verse sets this receptive hearing beside prophecy that begins within the speaker.
ALSO GROWS
shāmaʿ: To hear, listen, or heed.
שָׁמַע
It shows that hearing the LORD’s word involves attending to what is received.
shemūʿāh: A report or news that is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch keeps the word connected to what reaches a hearer from beyond their own source.
הִנָּבֵא
hinnāvēʾ
GROWS FROM
נבא
n-b-ʾ
To speak as a prophet; to prophesy.
The title ‘prophet’ and the act ‘prophesy’ grow from the same root, joining identity to speech. The verse shows that this shared prophetic language does not establish the message’s source: it names the speakers’ own hearts instead.
ALSO GROWS
nāviʾ: Prophet.
נָבִיא
The title belongs to the same word family as the act, making the repeated prophetic identity audible.
nevūʾāh: Prophecy.
נְבוּאָה
It names the prophetic utterance, while the verse presses the question of where that utterance originates.
THE PATTERN
A message’s authority is disclosed by its source; self-originating vision and received word are not interchangeable.
But the prophet, who boils over to speak a word in my nature, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the nature of other gods, that one dies.Thus says the LORD of hosts, Do not hear and respond to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they make you vapor. They speak a sight of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.And for this reason we also thank God without leaving a gap. For when you took hold of the word of God that you heard from us, you received it not as the word of humankind, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you who trust.THE THREAD
Thus says the LORD of hosts, Do not hear and respond to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they make you vapor. They speak a sight of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.Both passages pair the root נבא (n-b-ʾ), ‘prophesy,’ with לֵב (lev), ‘heart, inner self,’ as they expose where prophetic speech originates. Jeremiah makes Ezekiel’s contrast almost explicit: a vision can come from the prophets’ own hearts rather than from the LORD’s mouth.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us