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!

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The Lord GOD speaks through Ezekiel to the house of Israel during a prophetic address reviewing their ancestral rebellion and present idolatry.

The words — נִטְמְאִ֤֨ים (nitme'im) means making oneself unclean or defiled, describing the Israelites' ongoing ritual pollution through their idolatrous practices.

The thread — Child sacrifice to foreign gods appears in Psalms 106:37 and Jeremiah 7:31, while Ezekiel 20:26 explicitly ties this practice to God's declaration of the people's uncleanness.

Why it lands — The text states that persistent idolatry and child sacrifice actively defile the people, and therefore God refuses their request for consultation while they continue in these practices.

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

וּבִשְׂאֵ֣תu./vi/s.'Etand/ when/ lift up מַתְּנֹֽתֵיכֶ֡םma.te.no.tei./Khemgifts/ your בְּֽהַעֲבִיר֩be./ha.'a.Virwhen/ make pass בְּנֵיכֶ֨םbe.nei./Khemchildren/ your בָּאֵ֜שׁba./'Eshin the/ fire אַתֶּם֩'a.Temyou נִטְמְאִ֤֨יםnit.me.'Im[are] making yourselves unclean לְכָל־le./kholto/ all גִּלּֽוּלֵיכֶם֙gi.lu.lei./Khemidols/ your עַד־'ad-until הַיּ֔וֹםhai./Yomthis/ day וַאֲנִ֛יva./'a.Niand/ I אִדָּרֵ֥שׁ'i.da.Reshwill I let myself be consulted?לָכֶ֖םla./Khemby/ youבֵּ֣יתbeitO house of יִשְׂרָאֵ֑לYis.ra.'ElIsrael חַי־chai-[by] [the] life אָ֗נִי'A.niof me נְאֻם֙ne.'Um[the] utterance of אֲדֹנָ֣י'a.do.Nai[the] Lord יְהוִ֔הYah.wehYahweh אִם־'im-if אִדָּרֵ֖שׁ'i.da.ReshI will let myself be consultedלָכֶֽם׃la./Khemby/ you

King James Version

For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be enquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be enquired of by you.

Cross-references

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.
Deuteronomy 18:10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery,
1 Samuel 28:5 When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid and trembled violently.
2 Kings 3:13 Elisha, however, said to the king of Israel, “What have we to do with each other? Go to the prophets of your father and of your mother!” “No,” replied the king of Israel, “for it is the LORD who has summoned these three kings to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”
Job 27:8 For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
Job 27:10 Will he delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?
Psalms 66:18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
Proverbs 1:27 when your dread comes like a storm, and your destruction like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish overwhelm you.