Ezekiel 16:20
in Ezekiel 16You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols. Was your prostitution not enough?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
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. Were thy whoredoms a small matter,
KJV
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,
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This verse in Ezekiel 16
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Borne unto me - me is emphatic. The children of Yahweh have been devoted to Moloch. The rites of Moloch were twofold; (1) The actual sacrifice of men and children as expiatory sacrifices to, false gods. (2) The passing of them through the fire by way of purification and dedication. Probably the first is alluded to in Eze 16:20; the two rites together in Eze 16:21.
This site's exposition
You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me
on Ezekiel 16:20-22
The charge reaches child sacrifice: “You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols.” Beneath it lies the root: “you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your own blood.”
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
By the name of such adulterers we are to understand every kind of carnal and lustful concupiscence. Indeed, since the Scriptures so constantly give to idolatry the name of fornication, and since the apostle Paul calls avarice idolatry, who can doubt that every evil concupiscence may be rightly called fornication?
When the soul disregards the higher law by which it is governed and prostitutes itself as though for a price, then it corrupts itself.
(Vers. 20 seqq.) And it came to pass, says the Lord God, that you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to me, and you sacrificed them to be devoured. Is your fornication of little consequence, sacrificing my sons? And you gave them to consecrate them. And after all your abominations and fornications, you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and full of confusion, trampled in your own blood.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Sacrificed - Not only consecrating them to be priests to dumb idols; but even burning them in sacrifice to Molech. Devoured - Consumed to ashes. Is this - Were thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast proceeded to this unnatural cruelty?
Never was there such an instance of the degenerating of the paternal authority into the most barbarous tyranny as this was. Yet that was not the worst of it: it was an irreparable wrong to God himself, who challenged a special property in their children more than in their gold and silver and their meat: They are my children (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters,....
One cannot think of it without the utmost indignation: to see the pitiless hands of the parents shedding the guiltless blood of their own children, and by offering those pieces of themselves to the devil for buying sacrifices openly avowing the offering up of themselves to him for living sacrifices! How absurd was this, that the children which were born to God should be sacrificed to devils!
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
20, 21. sons and . . . daughters borne unto me--Though "thy children," yet they belong "unto Me," rather than to thee, for they were born under the immutable covenant with Israel, which even Israel's sin could not set aside, and they have received the sign of adoption as Mine, namely, circumcision.
The words behind it
13 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַתִּקְחִ֞י | vatikchi | and you took | H3947 → | 966 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| בָּנַ֤יִךְ | banayikh | sons your | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| וְאֶת־ | veet | and <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| בְּנוֹתַ֙יִךְ֙ | benotayikh | daughters your | H1323 → | 588 times |
| אֲשֶׁ֣ר | ʾasher | whom | H834 → | 5497 times |
| יָלַ֣דְתְּ | yaladt | you had borne | H3205 → | 496 times |
| לִ֔י | li | to me | ||
| וַתִּזְבָּחִ֥ים | vatizbachim | and you sacrificed them | H2076 → | 134 times |
| לָהֶ֖ם | lahem | to them | ||
| לֶאֱכ֑וֹל | leekhol | to devour | H398 → | 810 times |
| הַמְעַ֖ט | hamat | ¿ little | H4592 → | 101 times |
| מִתַּזְנוּתָֽיִךְ׃ | mitaznutekh | from prostitution<s> your | H8457 → | 20 times |
וַתִּקְחִ֞יand you took
vatikchiH3947 →966 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
בָּנַ֤יִךְsons your
banayikhH1121 →4930 times
וְאֶת־and <obj.>
veetH853 →10935 times
בְּנוֹתַ֙יִךְ֙daughters your
benotayikhH1323 →588 times
אֲשֶׁ֣רwhom
ʾasherH834 →5497 times
יָלַ֣דְתְּyou had borne
yaladtH3205 →496 times
לִ֔יto me
li
וַתִּזְבָּחִ֥יםand you sacrificed them
vatizbachimH2076 →134 times
לָהֶ֖םto them
lahem
לֶאֱכ֑וֹלto devour
leekholH398 →810 times
הַמְעַ֖ט¿ little
hamatH4592 →101 times
מִתַּזְנוּתָֽיִךְ׃from prostitution<s> your
mitaznutekhH8457 →20 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
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.”
it leads to
- Luke 2:23
(as it is written in the Law of the Lord: “Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to the Lord”),
- Numbers 3:13
for all the firstborn are Mine. On the day I struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated to Myself all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast. They are…
- Deuteronomy 15:19
You must set apart to the LORD your God every firstborn male produced by your herds and flocks. You are not to put the firstborn of your oxen to work, nor are you to…
- Exodus 22:29–30
You must not hold back offerings from your granaries or vats. You are to give Me the firstborn of your sons.
- Numbers 8:16–17
For the Levites have been wholly given to Me from among the sons of Israel. I have taken them for Myself in place of all who come first from the womb, the firstborn of…
- Luke 2:23
Through
Ezekiel 20:31When 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?…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 7:31
They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom so they could burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I never commanded, nor did it even enter My mind.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 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.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 7:31
Through
Ezekiel 20:26And 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.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 6:7
The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.
- Ezekiel 6:7
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies3
On this verse
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About Ezekiel
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, SERMON ON THE MOUNT 1:12.36; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.