Ezekiel 14:3 - Exposition

These men, etc. The prophet, taught by the word of the Lord, reads the hearts of those who came to him. The words do not imply, rather they exclude, the open practice of idolatry. The sin of the inquirers was that they had set up idols ( gillulim , Ezekiel's favourite word; see note on Ezekiel 6:4 ) in their hearts. The LXX . gives διανοήματα ,"thoughts of their hearts," as if to express this. They were hankering after the old false worships in which they had once, taken part. The stumbling block (see Ezekiel 3:20 ) of their iniquity was set up there. That divided heart, the "double mind" of James 1:8 , made true inquiry, as it made true prayer for guidance, impossible. Shall I be inquired of at all, etc.? The "at all" represents the emphatic iteration of the verb in the Hebrew. The Vulgate, Numquid interrogatus respondebo eis ? gives a fair paraphrase.