Ezekiel 14:4-5

Ezekiel was to tell these elders a message from the Lord. The Lord promised that any person in Israel, not just these elders, who was an idolater at heart and set a stumbling block in his own path by consulting a false prophet for divine guidance would receive an answer from Yahweh, not from the idol. That answer would come in the form of divine judgment, not words (cf. Ezekiel 14:7-10). The judgment of God on those who pursued idolatry was allowing them to continue in it until it destroyed them (cf. Leviticus 20:3; Leviticus 20:5-6; Deuteronomy 28:37; Hosea 4:17; Romans 1:18-32; 2 Thessalonians 2:11).

"This happens only to those who willingly take deceit into their hearts." [Note: Feinberg, p. 80.]

Taylor titled this section "Condemnation of those who are set on idolatry." [Note: Taylor, p. 125.] It is not the practice of these idolaters that drew the judgment of God, as bad as that was, but their commitment to it that drew the punishment explained here. Yahweh would judge these elders because of the multitude of His people’s idols and to bring their hearts back to Himself. The desire of these elders for a word from the Lord was only hypocritical; they wanted to appear pious but were really idolaters at heart.