Chapter xiii.
The message which follows the preceding one on the certainty of the doom
of Jerusalem is directed against the false prophets and prophetesses who
were at work among the people, and who antagonized the God-given
utterances of the true messengers of the Lord. These men and women may
well be termed the curse of Israel, because all they did was a curse to
the people. Their words inspired the rebellious people with a false hope
and kept them from turning to the Lord in true repentance. They
advocated a national alliance of Israel with Egypt and other empires,
while the true prophets exhorted Israel to put their confidence
exclusively in the Lord. The false prophets paid no heed to the moral
and religious conditions of the people of God. They saw nothing alarming
in the drift away from God, in the increasing immoralities, but in view
of all this they continued to cry peace, peace; but the true prophets
sounded the alarm and without mincing words uncovered the degenerating
conditions of the people.