Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Ezekiel, commanding him to pronounce judgment on Oholah and Oholibah by declaring their specific abominations. This verse functions as the direct indictment within that prophetic pronouncement.
The words — The Hebrew נִאֵפוּ (ni.'E.fu) literally means "they have committed adultery," appearing twice to emphasize repeated covenant violation. The phrase דָּם בִּידיהן (Dam bi-yedeihen) translates to "blood [is] on their hands," marking them as guilty of violent acts.
The thread — The charge of child sacrifice in fire recurs in Ezekiel 16:36 and Jeremiah 7:31, where Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom becomes the site for burning sons and daughters. Jeremiah 32:35 further notes these high places were built to Baal, framing the act as idolatrous worship rather than mere violence.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that covenant betrayal manifests in both sexual idolatry and the literal destruction of the offspring God claims as His own. It requires the reader to see idolatry not as a private belief but as a public, generational crime that defiles sanctuary and community.
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
That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 16:36 This is what the Lord GOD says: Because you poured out your wealth and exposed your nakedness in your promiscuity with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them,
- 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.
- Jeremiah 32:35 They have built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Ben-hinnom to make their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molech—something I never commanded them, nor had it ever entered My mind, that they should commit such an abomination and cause Judah to sin.
- 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?
- Ezekiel 16:38 And I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and those who shed blood; so I will bring upon you the wrath of your bloodshed and jealousy.
- 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.
- Leviticus 18:21 You must not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
- Leviticus 20:2 “Tell the Israelites, ‘Any Israelite or foreigner living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death. The people of the land are to stone him.
- Deuteronomy 12:31 You must not worship the LORD your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.
- 2 Kings 17:17 They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire and practiced divination and soothsaying. They devoted themselves to doing evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.