Ezekiel 16:21
in Ezekiel 16You slaughtered My children and delivered them up through the fire to idols.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
that thou hast slain my children, and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through the fire unto them?
KJV
That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?
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This verse in Ezekiel 16
Commentary
5 notes on this verseTo cause them to pass through the fire - Bp. Newcome quotes a very apposite passage from Dionysius Halicarnass. Ant. Romans lib. i., s. 88, p. 72, and marg. p. 75, Edit.
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.”
This site's exposition
delivered them up through the fire
The LORD claims the children as His own, born under His covenant. Barnes distinguishes two rites of Molech, the killing of children and their passing through the fire. Leviticus 18:21 had forbidden giving children to Molech.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(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 Awakening1 voice
That thou hast slain my children,....
The words behind it
7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַֽתִּשְׁחֲטִ֖י | vatishchati | and you slaughtered | H7819 → | 81 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| בָּנָ֑י | banai | children my | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| וַֽתִּתְּנִ֔ים | vatitenim | and you gave them | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| בְּהַעֲבִ֥יר | behaavir | when made pass through | H5674 → | 556 times |
| אוֹתָ֖ם | ʾotam | <obj.> them | H853 → | 10935 times |
| לָהֶֽם׃ | lahem | to <the> them |
וַֽתִּשְׁחֲטִ֖יand you slaughtered
vatishchatiH7819 →81 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
בָּנָ֑יchildren my
banaiH1121 →4930 times
וַֽתִּתְּנִ֔יםand you gave them
vatitenimH5414 →2011 times
בְּהַעֲבִ֥ירwhen made pass through
behaavirH5674 →556 times
אוֹתָ֖ם<obj.> them
ʾotamH853 →10935 times
לָהֶֽם׃to <the> them
lahem
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
Leviticus 18:21You 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.
it leads to
- 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…
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Deuteronomy 12:31
Through
Deuteronomy 18:10Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery,
it leads to
- Leviticus 19:31
You must not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out, or you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Leviticus 19:26
You must not eat anything with blood still in it. You must not practice divination or sorcery.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Exodus 22:18
You must not allow a sorceress to live.
- Leviticus 19:31
Through
Jeremiah 19:5They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I never commanded or mentioned, nor did it even enter My mind.
it leads to
- Psalms 106:37–38
They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 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.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 32:35
They have built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Hinnom to make their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molech—something I never commanded them, nor had it ever entered…
- Psalms 106:37–38
Through
2 Kings 17:17They 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.
it leads to
- 2 Kings 16:3
Instead, he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 2 Kings 16:3
Where this verse is studied
About Ezekiel
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; 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) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.