Texts in Conversation
The whitewashed wall in Ezekiel draws on the danger of unsafe workmanship condemned in Hammurabi's building laws. False assurances resemble a repair that only hides weakness, leaving those who trust the promise of safety exposed to harm.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Code of Hammurabi 1:239
Babylonian Legal Text
Ancient Near East
226 If a barber, without his master's knowledge, cuts the mark of a slave on a slave who is not for sale, the barber's hands shall be cut off. 227 If anyone deceives a barber into marking a slave not for sale with a slave's mark, he shall be put to death and buried in his house. The barber shall swear, "I did not mark him knowingly," and shall go free. 228 If a builder builds a house for someone and completes it, the owner shall pay him a fee of two shekels of silver for each sar of surface. 229 If a builder builds a house for someone and does not build it properly, and the house he built collapses and kills its owner, the builder shall be put to death.
Ezekiel 13:10
Hebrew Bible
9 My hand will be against the prophets who see delusion and announce lying omens. They will not be included in the council of my people, nor be written in the registry of the house of Israel, nor enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord. 10 “‘This is because they have led my people astray saying, “All is well,” when things are not well. When anyone builds a wall without mortar, they coat it with whitewash. 11 Tell the ones who coat it with whitewash that it will fall. When there is a deluge of rain, hailstones will fall and a violent wind will break out. 12 When the wall has collapsed, people will ask you, “Where is the whitewash you coated it with?”
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Notes and References
“... 13:10. flimsy wall covered with whitewash. Ezekiel uses an analogy similar to that in Jeremiah 6:14 and 8:11. In both prophets reality is covered up and people delude themselves into believing that a wound is not serious or a wall is sturdy. It reflects the tendency to hide structural problems with cosmetic solutions. Mesopotamian law codes also deal with unscrupulous builders and homeowners who neglect repairs or attempt to hide unsafe workmanship (see both the Laws of Eshnunna and Hammurabi’s Code). ...”
Walton, John H.
The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
(p. 699) InterVarsity Press, 2000
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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