Bible Strands
Ezekiel 16:20
You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols. Was your prostitution not enough?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Lord GOD speaks through Ezekiel to personified Jerusalem, condemning her covenant betrayal at the precise moment she contrasts His provision of fine flour, oil, and honey with her own idolatrous actions.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַתִּזְבַּחִים (va./tiz.ba.Chi/m) means "and you sacrificed them," directly describing the act of offering the children as food to idols.
The thread — The text records child sacrifice to idols in Ezekiel 16:20 and Psalms 106:37, while Exodus 13:2 establishes the contrasting command to consecrate the firstborn male to God.
Why it lands — The passage demands a clear acknowledgment that covenant betrayal involves exchanging divine provision for idolatry, requiring the reader to recognize the severity of violating a sworn relationship.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 23:37 For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to Me, in the fire as food for their idols.
- Exodus 13:2 “Consecrate to Me every firstborn male. The firstborn from every womb among the Israelites belongs to Me, both of man and beast.”
- Psalms 106:37 They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.
- Jeremiah 7:31 They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so they could burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I never commanded, nor did it even enter My mind.
- Ezekiel 20:26 And I pronounced them unclean through their gifts—the sacrifice of every firstborn in the fire—so that I might devastate them, in order that they would know that I am the LORD.
- Ezekiel 20:31 When you offer your gifts, sacrificing your sons in the fire, you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. So should I be consulted by you, O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will not be consulted by you!
- Exodus 13:12 you are to present to the LORD the firstborn male of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the LORD.
- Deuteronomy 29:11 your children and wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your wood and draw your water—
- Isaiah 57:5 who burn with lust among the oaks, under every luxuriant tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?
- Ezekiel 16:21 You slaughtered My children and delivered them up through the fire to idols.