To quote a response to this from the answering-islam.org website:
Ezekiel 14:9-11, the issue becomes effective only after the people have sinned. Verse 4 shows the idolatry of the people on the one hand, and turning to a false prophet on the other. Verse 7 gives the background of what is going on. "To every last person from the house of Israel, including any of the resident aliens who live in Israel--all who turn their backs on me and embrace idols, who install the wickedness that will ruin them at the center of their lives and then have the gall to go to the prophet to ask me questions--I, GOD, will step in and give the answer myself."
Since the false prophets deceived the people the judgment of God is that they would be deceived. God did not punish for a crime the prophet had not done.
1 Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
2 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying ,
3 Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
4 Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;
5 That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.
6 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent , and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
7 For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:
8 And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
9 And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
10 And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;
11 That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord GOD. (Ezekiel 14:1-11)
This response isn't by any means a rebuttal, since it accords with what I've been going over so far. In each case, when the Lord invokes deception among the people, it is a result of their own sin or disbelief, and this theme is recurrent throughout all of the passages in scripture which address this issue. It's not as though I claimed God deceived them for no reason; just the opposite. That which He does is according to His righteous ways, which are past finding out (Romans 11:33), and this includes deceiving the wicked.
1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:
2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
24 This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24)
3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)
4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. (2 Corinthians 4:4)