Ezekiel 13:4
New International Version
Your prophets, Israel, are like jackals among ruins.

New Living Translation
“O people of Israel, these prophets of yours are like jackals digging in the ruins.

English Standard Version
Your prophets have been like jackals among ruins, O Israel.

Berean Standard Bible
Your prophets, O Israel, are like foxes among the ruins.

King James Bible
O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.

New King James Version
O Israel, your prophets are like foxes in the deserts.

New American Standard Bible
Israel, your prophets have been like jackals among ruins.

NASB 1995
“O Israel, your prophets have been like foxes among ruins.

NASB 1977
“O Israel, your prophets have been like foxes among ruins.

Legacy Standard Bible
O Israel, your prophets have been like foxes among waste places.

Amplified Bible
O Israel, your prophets have been like foxes among the ruins.

Christian Standard Bible
Your prophets, Israel, are like jackals among ruins.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Your prophets, Israel, are like jackals among ruins.

American Standard Version
O Israel, thy prophets have been like foxes in the waste places.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Like foxes among the ruins they have been your Prophets, oh Israel!

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Thy prophets, O Israel, are like foxes in the deserts.

Contemporary English Version
Israel's prophets are no better than jackals that hunt for food among the ruins of a city.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Thy prophets, O Israel, were like foxes in the deserts.

English Revised Version
O Israel, thy prophets have been like foxes in the waste places.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Israel, your prophets are like foxes among the ruins [of a city].

Good News Translation
People of Israel, your prophets are as useless as foxes living among the ruins of a city.

International Standard Version
Israel, your prophets have become like foxes among ruins.

JPS Tanakh 1917
O Israel, thy prophets have been like foxes in ruins.

Literal Standard Version
Your prophets have been | As foxes in the wasteland, O Israel.

Majority Standard Bible
Your prophets, O Israel, are like foxes among the ruins.

New American Bible
Like foxes among ruins are your prophets, Israel!

NET Bible
Your prophets have become like jackals among the ruins, O Israel.

New Revised Standard Version
Your prophets have been like jackals among ruins, O Israel.

New Heart English Bible
Israel, your prophets have been like foxes in the waste places.

Webster's Bible Translation
O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.

World English Bible
Israel, your prophets have been like foxes in the waste places.

Young's Literal Translation
As foxes in the wastes, Thy prophets, O Israel, have been.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Reproof of False Prophets
3This is what the Lord GOD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, yet have seen nothing. 4Your prophets, O Israel, are like foxes among the ruins. 5You did not go up to the gaps or restore the wall around the house of Israel so that it would stand in the battle on the Day of the LORD.…

Cross References
Song of Solomon 2:15
Catch for us the foxes--the little foxes that ruin the vineyards--for our vineyards are in bloom.

Ezekiel 13:3
This is what the Lord GOD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, yet have seen nothing.

Ezekiel 13:5
You did not go up to the gaps or restore the wall around the house of Israel so that it would stand in the battle on the Day of the LORD.


Treasury of Scripture

O Israel, your prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.

like

Song of Solomon 2:15
Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

Micah 2:11
If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.

Micah 3:5
Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

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Desert Deserts Foxes Israel Jackals Places Prophets Ruins Waste Wastes
Ezekiel 13
1. The reproof of false prophets
10. and their untempered mortar
17. Of prophecies and their pillows














(4) Like the foxes in the deserts.--The comparison is sufficiently close if it is considered as extending only to these mischievous men living unconcerned among the ruins of their state and country, as the foxes find their home in desolated cities (Lamentations 5:18); but many extend the simile to the undermining of the ground by the foxes, as these prophets accelerated the ruin of their people.

Verse 4 - Like the foxes in the deserts, etc. The points of comparison are manifold. The fox is cunning (Luke 13:32, where the term is applied to Herod Antipas). It spoils the vine and its fruits (Song of Solomon 2:15); it burrows among ruins (Nehemiah 4:3; Lamentations 5:18). So the false prophets were crafty, laid waste the vineyard of the Lord of hosts (Isaiah 5:7), made their profit out of the ruin of Israel, and made that ruin worse. The 'Reineke Fuchs,' in satirizing the monks and priests of the sixteenth century under the same comparison, presents a curious, though probably unconscious, analogue. In Matthew 7:15 and Acts 20:29 wolves appear as the types of the false prophet.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Your prophets,
נְבִיאֶ֥יךָ (nə·ḇî·’e·ḵā)
Noun - masculine plural construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 5030: A spokesman, speaker, prophet

O Israel,
יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל (yiś·rā·’êl)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3478: Israel -- 'God strives', another name of Jacob and his desc

are
הָיֽוּ׃ (hā·yū)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

like jackals
כְּשֻׁעָלִ֖ים (kə·šu·‘ā·lîm)
Preposition-k | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 7776: Fox, perhaps jackal

among the ruins.
בָּחֳרָב֑וֹת (bā·ḥo·rā·ḇō·wṯ)
Preposition-b | Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 2723: Waste, desolation, ruin


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OT Prophets: Ezekiel 13:4 Israel your prophets have been like foxes (Ezek. Eze Ezk)
Ezekiel 13:3
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