Ezekiel 14:9

9. When he hath spoken a thing Literally, and speaketh a thing.

I the Lord have deceived that prophet The prophecy was false and did not come from God (Ezekiel 13:4; Ezekiel 13:6); but the prophet who willfully follows a lie will soon lose the power to know the truth. This is God’s punishment for sin: that a man’s own “ways” and “abominations” fall upon him (Ezekiel 7:3; Ezekiel 9:10; Ezekiel 11:21), and is the rod by which he is chastised (Ezekiel 7:11; Ezekiel 7:20; note Ezekiel 14:5). These liars (Ezekiel 13:7-8) at first hope that the prophecy which comes from their own hearts may be true (Ezekiel 13:6); at last by the action of this well-known mental law they are made to believe the lies they tell. It is one of God’s laws that rebellion against the truth blinds a man’s eyes so that he cannot see the truth (Ezekiel 12:1). He who speaks seeing “nothing” (xiii, 3) shall presently see a false vision and be himself deceived; but this will not do away with his guilt. No teaching of Scripture was more emphasized by Jesus than this (Matthew 13:14; John 12:40; see also Acts 28:26; Romans 11:8; 2 Corinthians 3:14). They who call evil good and good evil in order to deceive others will in the end be themselves deceived. The Hebrews, who took no interest in “second causes” and knew nothing of psychological laws, naturally and properly referred to God directly that which is now seen to be the inevitable result of willful falsehood according to the eternal laws of mind established by the Creator from the beginning.

The above explanation is given because of the ordinary supposition that the “deception” spoken of refers to the substance of the prophecy; but the connection indicates very clearly that it has reference particularly to the outcome of such prophesying. The Lord has blinded the prophet’s eyes not to his own wickedness, nor even necessarily to the sequence of historical events, but to the results which shall come to him personally through these falsehoods. He expects praise and reward, and does not see his own destruction which shall surely come because of it.