“And you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their own hearts. Prophesy against them and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the women who sew magic bands upon all wrists, and make veils for the heads of persons of every stature, in the hunt for souls! Will you hunt down souls belonging to my people and keep your own souls alive? You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, putting to death souls who should not die and keeping alive souls who should not live, by your lying to my people, who listen to lies. “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against your magic bands with which you hunt the souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms, and I will let the souls whom you hunt go free, the souls like birds. Your veils also I will tear off and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand as prey, and you shall know that I am the LORD. Because you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not grieved him, and you have encouraged the wicked, that he should not turn from his evil way to save his life, therefore you shall no more see false visions nor practice divination. I will deliver my people out of your hand. And you shall know that I am the LORD,” Ezek 13:17-23.
This oracle has caused a lot of consternation among scholars. Many of its details are unfathomable beyond educated guesses, and some of them not so educated. Suffice it to say, these false prophetesses use pagan methods of some sort to deceive people into believing them. And by their devious methods they “hunt souls.” Souls who “should not die” die, and souls who “should not live” live. They are as “prey” in the hands of these women. In short, these women are master manipulators, and women are oh, so good at it.
If you haven’t seen that in your lifetime, you are either unobservant or very young. Even while claiming submission, women can get exactly what they want with the crook of a finger. I’ve seen “Mama’s boys” tied to their mothers’ apron strings, husbands actually afraid of their wives, and preachers taken down a peg by a loud woman right on the church house steps. Sometimes there isn’t even a half-baked reason for it; it’s simply women who enjoy exercising their power over others, while at the same time batting their eyelashes and saying, “What? Little ol’ me?”
No one should be walking on eggshells around me. No one should live in fear of my reaction to something they do or say. Yet I have seen young brides give in to things they did not want on their wedding days just to avoid “hurting” someone—someone who should have asked a bride what SHE wanted instead of just up and doing and expecting it to be accepted gratefully, or someone who simply insisted that she knew best. Sometimes, often in fact, it is even a member of the family.
I have seen daughters-in-law practically groveling for a little acceptance from mothers-in-law who were disappointed in their sons’ choices and made it obvious.
I have seen grandmothers pitting grandchildren against one another for her affection.
And all this is as old as the women in the Bible who did the same—Delilah, Jezebel, Athaliah, and Herodias, among others. Clearly we have a problem with this, ladies, and it’s time we faced up to it and cleaned up our acts.
We may not be false prophetesses out there to “hunt souls,” but we are certainly false wives, mothers, and grandmothers when we have ulterior motives to our actions. If I “dishearten” my husband with nagging, with catty responses, with complaints, I am not the wife “who does him good and not evil all the days of his life.” If I push my children with guilt trips and innuendo, I am not the mother who “opens her mouth with wisdom.” If I am the woman in the church who is so quick to tell everyone what they need to be doing for her, and in exactly what way or I’ll leave, I am not the servant of the church the apostles so often commend. If I have to stoop to manipulation in order to be content with who I am, I am not the woman for whom “strength and dignity are her clothing.”
Submission does not act this way. Respect does not. Certainly, love doesn’t.
The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down. Whoever walks in uprightness fears the LORD, but he [or she] who is devious in his/her ways despises him, Prov 14:1-2.
Dene Ward
This oracle has caused a lot of consternation among scholars. Many of its details are unfathomable beyond educated guesses, and some of them not so educated. Suffice it to say, these false prophetesses use pagan methods of some sort to deceive people into believing them. And by their devious methods they “hunt souls.” Souls who “should not die” die, and souls who “should not live” live. They are as “prey” in the hands of these women. In short, these women are master manipulators, and women are oh, so good at it.
If you haven’t seen that in your lifetime, you are either unobservant or very young. Even while claiming submission, women can get exactly what they want with the crook of a finger. I’ve seen “Mama’s boys” tied to their mothers’ apron strings, husbands actually afraid of their wives, and preachers taken down a peg by a loud woman right on the church house steps. Sometimes there isn’t even a half-baked reason for it; it’s simply women who enjoy exercising their power over others, while at the same time batting their eyelashes and saying, “What? Little ol’ me?”
No one should be walking on eggshells around me. No one should live in fear of my reaction to something they do or say. Yet I have seen young brides give in to things they did not want on their wedding days just to avoid “hurting” someone—someone who should have asked a bride what SHE wanted instead of just up and doing and expecting it to be accepted gratefully, or someone who simply insisted that she knew best. Sometimes, often in fact, it is even a member of the family.
I have seen daughters-in-law practically groveling for a little acceptance from mothers-in-law who were disappointed in their sons’ choices and made it obvious.
I have seen grandmothers pitting grandchildren against one another for her affection.
And all this is as old as the women in the Bible who did the same—Delilah, Jezebel, Athaliah, and Herodias, among others. Clearly we have a problem with this, ladies, and it’s time we faced up to it and cleaned up our acts.
We may not be false prophetesses out there to “hunt souls,” but we are certainly false wives, mothers, and grandmothers when we have ulterior motives to our actions. If I “dishearten” my husband with nagging, with catty responses, with complaints, I am not the wife “who does him good and not evil all the days of his life.” If I push my children with guilt trips and innuendo, I am not the mother who “opens her mouth with wisdom.” If I am the woman in the church who is so quick to tell everyone what they need to be doing for her, and in exactly what way or I’ll leave, I am not the servant of the church the apostles so often commend. If I have to stoop to manipulation in order to be content with who I am, I am not the woman for whom “strength and dignity are her clothing.”
Submission does not act this way. Respect does not. Certainly, love doesn’t.
The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down. Whoever walks in uprightness fears the LORD, but he [or she] who is devious in his/her ways despises him, Prov 14:1-2.
Dene Ward
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