יחזקאל, פרק כ״ב, פסוק כ״ח

The moral collapse of Jerusalem was not just the result of corrupt leaders, but of the very people meant to guide the nation. At the heart of this spiritual ruin were the false prophets, who served as the primary instigators of the city's downfall [רד״ק]. Rather than confronting the wicked behavior of the priests and officials, these prophets actively enabled their corruption by supplying them with fabricated visions [מלבי״ם].

The primary approach among commentators illustrates this deception through a metaphor from the world of construction. The prophets acted like negligent builders who attempt to repair a damaged wall by plugging its holes and smearing it with cheap, unprepared mortar [רש״י, מצודת ציון]. Because this plaster lacks the necessary straw to hold it together, it is fundamentally defective. On the surface, the coating smooths over the rough patches and makes the structure look beautiful to the outside world. However, the facade cannot endure and will simply melt away the moment the rains begin to fall [רש״י].

In reality, the society was full of deep fractures and moral breaches. Instead of pointing out these dangerous cracks and sounding the alarm [ביאור שטיינזלץ], the prophets chose to plaster over the truth. They masked their deceptions with pleasant, elegant rhetoric, ensuring that the public would accept their messages with comfort and ease [מצודת דוד]. They prophesied empty visions [מצודת ציון] and told fortunes built on falsehood and lies [מצודת דוד, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. The ultimate betrayal lay in how they presented these fabrications. They boldly claimed to speak in the name of God, presenting their false assurances as divine truth, even though God had never spoken to them at all [מצודת דוד, ביאור שטיינזלץ].