■ 13:17–23* The two-part
oracle against the prophets is followed by a two-part saying against the women
who prophesy, introduced with a renewed address to the prophet, a fresh
commission, which is expanded here by the command to perform an expressive
gesture, and a renewed messenger formula.28 Whereas the two-part
oracle against the prophets has been strongly influenced by the older prophetic
preaching in its content and even to the text of certain formulations, here the
striking thing is the novelty of the content and the formulations. Not that the
Old Testament does not otherwise know of women who prophesy. In Ex 15:20*
Miriam, who sings with the daughters of Israel the saving action of Yahweh
toward Israel, receives (as a singer?) the title of נביאה. Deborah,
who “judged” Israel and became through her song (Ju 5:12*) the source of the
summons of the tribes against Canaanite oppression, is described in Ju 4:4* as אשׁה נביאה . Whilst
with Isaiah’s wife we do not know for what action she is described in Is 8:3*
by the title נביאה (scarcely simply because she was the wife of a prophet, and we
could better think of service as a temple singer), Huldah, the wife of a temple
official (2 Kings 22:14*; 2 Chr 34:22*), appears as a נביאה in
connection with the delivery of a divine decision of very great importance for
the Judean state. Further Noadiah (הנביאה), exactly
like the “remnant of the prophets” (Neh 6:14*), appears to have been concerned
with instructions to the political governor.
Nothing of all this can be found
in the description given by Ezekiel. Rather there is noteworthy here not only
the (intentional?) avoidance of the title נביאה and its
replacing by the looser בנות
עמך המתנבאות, in the hitpo‛el
of which Cooke would find a slight note of contempt (“who behave like
prophets”), but also the concentration on private concerns in the actions of
the women attacked here. Of the great question about the “house of Israel” (v
4*) struggling for its existence, which can be seen in the images of the
breaches in the wall and its endangering, nothing is to be seen here. It is
concerned solely with the deliverance (or endangering) of individuals (נפשׁות vv 18–20*),
about the fate of the righteous and the wicked (-רשׁע–צדיק v
22*)—things which the exiled prophet knew in glancing at his immediate
surroundings in a particular way as his responsibility. Not by chance do we
find in this oracle formulations which recall by way of contrast the assertions
about the prophet’s role as watchman (3:17–21*; 33:1–9*) and the explanations
of Ezek 18.
The twofold oracle of vv 17ff*
undeniably enters into a sphere of minor mantic acts and magic—a sphere which
can only be put quite improperly under the catchword “prophetic.” Dtn 18:9ff*
sets this mantic activity in opposition to the “prophets” (נביא) given to
Israel, as a Canaanite counterpart, even in its terminology. When we examine
the perspective which enables Ezekiel to set these lesser activities under the
catchword “prophetic,” then it is clearly the case that here also powers were
employed which mediated “life” and “death.” Just as the word of the prophet
legitimately gives death (11:13*) and life (37:4ff*), so, in the activity of
these women of Israel (המתנבאות
מלבהן v 17*), death and life were
dispensed in an unauthorized manner, and so Yahweh’s dominion was infringed
upon. (Walther Zimmerli, Ezekiel: A Commentary
on the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, 2 vols. [Hermeneia—a critical and
Historical Commentary on the Bible; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979],
1:296-97)
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