יחזקאל, פרק י״ג, פסוק י׳

False leaders often lull the public into an illusion of safety, preventing genuine correction and paving the way for inevitable ruin. This destructive dynamic between a fake spiritual leadership and the nation is captured through the vivid image of a crumbling wall covered in cheap plaster. The sheer gravity of this deception guarantees a heavy consequence. The prophets face a severe, twofold punishment that perfectly matches the weight of their actions [מלבי״ם, רד״ק]. Alternatively, this specific offense of misleading the public is so severe that it alone warrants their downfall [מצודת דוד].

The central crime of these leaders is planting a false sense of security within the nation. They assure the public that the city and the Temple are secure and that no enemy threat looms. By guaranteeing both internal and external peace, they encourage the people to continue their destructive behaviors, effectively blocking any chance of repentance [מלבי״ם, מצודת דוד, ביאור שטיינזלץ].

To illustrate this deception, the situation is compared to the construction of a flimsy partition made of reeds or inferior bricks [רש״י, מלבי״ם, מצודת דוד]. Commentators offer different perspectives on who exactly is building this fragile structure. One approach suggests that the people or the king are the builders, representing their reliance on weak physical defenses or failed political strategies [מלבי״ם, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Another perspective argues that the false prophets themselves construct the wall, which serves as a symbol for their fabricated prophecies [מצודת דוד, רד״ק]. On a deeper, spiritual level, this partition represents a wall of sins separating the nation from God. In this view, the false prophets seal up whatever small openings remain in that barrier, causing God's protective guidance to depart entirely [מלבי״ם].

To hide the structural flaws, the wall is coated with a cheap, ineffective plaster. This material is poorly prepared, much like unsalted food or chalky dirt that will easily wash away in the rain [רש״י, מצודת ציון, רד״ק]. The identity of those applying the plaster depends on who built the wall. If the people constructed the weak political foundations, the false prophets are the ones plastering over them. They cover up the nation's poor choices and gloss over reality to create a dangerous illusion of stability [מלבי״ם, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Conversely, if the prophets built the wall of false prophecy, they themselves apply the plaster, using smooth talk and empty rhetoric to make their lies easy for the public to swallow [מצודת דוד, רד״ק]. Finally, another view reverses this dynamic: while the prophets construct the wall of lies, it is the gullible public who accepts these words and plasters the partition, trying to hold together a fragile reality that simply cannot survive [רד״ק].