Ezekiel 16:20

Ezekiel 16:20 in other versions

• King James Version (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,
• New International Version (NIV)“ ‘And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was your prostitution not enough?
• English Standard Version (ESV)And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter
• New King James Version (NKJV)“Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter,

Context of Ezekiel 16:20

18You put your beautiful clothes on them. You gave them my oil and my incense as an offering. 19You also offered to those idols the food that I had given to you, the good flour, the olive oil and the honey. You wanted to please your idols with sweet smells. Yes, that is what happened! That is what the Almighty Lord says. You also offered your sons and your daughters as sacrifices to those idols. They were my children too! But you offered them as food to your idols. Like a prostitute, you were not faithful to me. 21But you did an even worse thing. You killed my children. You offered them as sacrifices to idols! 22You forgot what you were like when I first found you. At that time you had no clothes to cover your bare body. You lay on the ground in your own blood. You did not remember this. Instead, you chose to do disgusting things and live as a prostitute.

Ezekiel 16:20 word by word

וַתִּקְחִ֞י אֶת־בָּנַ֤יִךְ וְאֶת־בְּנוֹתַ֙יִךְ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר יָלַ֣דְתְּ לִ֔י וַתִּזְבָּחִ֥ים לָהֶ֖ם לֶאֱכ֑וֹל הַמְעַ֖ט מִתַּזְנוּתָֽיִךְ׃Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• Moreover thou hast takenלָקַחlâqach · to take: takeH3947
• thy sonsבֵּןbên · son: childH1121
• and thy daughtersבַּתbath · daughterH1323
• whom thou hast borneיָלַדyâlad · to begetH3205
• unto me, and these hast thou sacrificedזָבַחzâbach · to sacrificeH2076
• unto them to be devouredאָכַל'âkal · to eatH398
• of thy whoredomsתַּזְנוּתtaznûth taznûth · fornicationH8457
• a small matterמְעַטme‛aţ me‛âţ · littleH4592

Cross-references for Ezekiel 16:20

• Ezekiel 16:21But you did an even worse thing. You killed my children. You offered them as sacrifices to idols!
• Ezekiel 23:4The older sister was called Oholah. The younger one was called Oholibah. In this story, Oholah is Samaria. Oholibah is Jerusalem. They became my wives, and later they gave birth to sons and daughters for me.
• Genesis 17:7My covenant with you is very strong. I am making it with you and with your descendants. It will continue for generation after generation of your descendants, for all time. I will be your God. I will also be the God of all your descendants.
• Exodus 13:2He said, ‘Keep every firstborn male separate and special for me. Every male who is the first to be born of his mother is mine. He is mine, whether he is man or animal.’
• Deuteronomy 29:11He sees your children and your wives. He sees the foreign people who live among you and who cut wood and carry water for you.
• Ezekiel 20:26I let them make themselves unclean because of the offerings that they made. They burned their firstborn children in fire as sacrifices. I did that to make them afraid. I wanted them to know that I am the Lord.”
• Ezekiel 23:37They have not been faithful to me. They have murdered people. They have worshipped idols. They have not been faithful to me as their husband. They have even offered their children as food to their idols. Those were my children that they burned with fire.
• 2 Kings 16:3He lived in the same bad way that the kings of Israel did. He even caused his son to walk through fire. In this way he copied the terrible sins of the other nations in Canaan. Those were the nations that the Lord had chased out so that the Israelites could live there.
• 2 Chronicles 33:6He burnt his own sons with fire as a sacrifice in Ben Hinnom valley. He used magic and false gods to find out what would happen in the future. He took advice from magicians and people who talked to the spirits of dead people. He did many things that the Lord said were very evil. This made the Lord very angry.
• Psalms 106:37They even killed their sons and their daughters as sacrifices for those idols of demons!
• Isaiah 57:5You worship your idols among the big trees, and you have sex at the same time. You kill your children as sacrifices to your false gods. You do that beside streams and in caves among the rocks.
• Jeremiah 7:31They have built altars in Topheth, in Ben-Hinnom Valley. On those altars, they light fires to burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices. I never commanded them to do that. I never even thought about it.
• Jeremiah 32:35They have built altars in Ben-Hinnom valley to worship Baal. On those altars, they light fires to burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to Molech. I never commanded them to do that. I never even thought about it. It has caused Judah's people to be guilty of sin.
• Micah 6:7He might be happy with thousands of male sheep, or ten thousand rivers of olive oil. I have not obeyed God. I might even kill and burn my oldest son, because of that. I have done wrong things and I must pay God for that. Perhaps, if I give my own child to him, that will be enough to pay.’
• Ezekiel 8:17The Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, look at that! The people of Judah are doing these disgusting things here in my temple! That is a terrible thing! And they are also doing violent things everywhere in their land. They continue to make me angry all the time. Look at them! They insult me as much as they can!
• Jeremiah 2:34You have been cruel to poor people for no reason. Your clothes have their blood on them! They had not robbed you, but you still killed them. You have done all these bad things, but still you say,

Commentaries on Ezekiel 16:20

• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 20Borne 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 Ezekiel 16:20; the two rites together in Ezekiel 16:21.Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 20-22Jerusalem even sacrificed her sons and daughters to false gods. The nations around Israel practiced child sacrifice to show total commitment to a deity. This was common in the worship of the gods Molech and Chemosh (see Deuteronomy 12:31; 2 Kings 3:27). Israel sometimes took part in this terrible sin.Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 20-2120-21. 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. This aggravates the guilt of sacrificing them to Molech. to be devoured--not merely to pass through the fire, as sometimes children were made to do (Le 18:21)…Read the comment

Topics related to Ezekiel 16:20

• Children
• Idolatry
• Ingratitude
• Lasciviousness
• Molech
• Offerings

In the dictionaries

• Confound
• Eminent
• Equal
• Fornication
• Gird
• Justify
• Rest
• Solomon, Song of
• Children of God
• Crime; Crimes

Commentaries on Ezekiel 16

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Rashi on Tanakh
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings