Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 16:20
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,
20 seq. The sacrifice of children
Jehovah is the husband of the idealized community, and the individual members are his children. Human sacrifices, though rare, were not altogether unknown in early Israel, as the instance of Jephthah proves (Judges 11). They were probably more common among the Canaanites and neighbouring peoples, though perhaps even among them resorted to only on occasions of great trial, in the hope of appeasing the anger or securing the favour of the deity (cf. the tragic story of the king of Moab, 2Ki 3:27). Instances of human sacrifices do not occur in the early history of Israel, for neither the slaughter of Agag (1Sa 15:33) nor the hanging of seven descendants of Saul (2 Samuel 21) comes strictly under the idea of a sacrifice; but Ahaz king of Judah is said to have passed his son through the fire (2Ki 16:3), and the practice introduced by him was followed by Manasseh (2Ki 21:6), and must have spread among the people (Jer 7:31; Jer 19:5; Jer 32:35). The phrase “to pass through the fire” might be taken to mean merely a lustration or purification by fire, not implying the death of the child. This cannot, however, have been the case, for this prophet uses the words sacrifice ( Eze 16:20) and slaughter ( Eze 16:21), and Jeremiah says the people built high places “to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal” (ch. Eze 19:5). The child, of course, was not burnt alive, but slain like other sacrifices, and offered as a burnt offering. The practice was a widespread one in the East, 2Ki 17:31. See further on ch. Eze 20:25 seq.
20. to be devoured ] Namely, in the fire.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Thy sons; they were hers by birth, and should have been hers in affection, care, and preservation; but as idolatry is from the father of lies, the old murderer, it is even cruel, and spares neither sons or daughters. Sons, that are usually the fathers darlings, are always the strength and glory of the family, without respect to him that begat them, were by this adulteress designed to please the idol.
Thy daughters, usually the mothers great delight, whose tender sex required better usage, unregarded, are by a cruel mother in idolatrous abominations destroyed.
Whom thou hast borne unto me; which were mine, born within covenant, before the lewd mother was divorced, born to be of my family, and to serve and love me.
And these; these very children of mine, to my dishonour and grief, to provoke me to utmost anger, hast thou destroyed.
Sacrificed; not only consecrating them to be priests to dumb idols, dunghill gods, as Eze 20:26; 2Ch 33:6; or idolatrously purifying them, called lustration; or, which is most inhumanly cruel, burning them in sacrifice to Molech, which cruelty the Jews themselves did barbarously imitate, 2Ch 28:3.
To be devoured; to be consumed to ashes, being made a burnt-offering to the devil, as Psa 106:37.
Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter? were thy whoredoms a small matter with thee, that thou hast proceeded to this height of unnatural cruelty? Or, is both face and heart so hardened by an impudent course of adulteries, that thou canst do this as if it were no great matter? Will spiritual adulteresses as well as bodily thus hunt the precious life? Could such commit the worst who were forbid to commit any murder?
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20, 21. sons and . . . daughtersborne unto meThough “thy children,” yet they belong”unto Me,” rather than to thee, for they were born underthe immutable covenant with Israel, which even Israel’s sin could notset aside, and they have received the sign of adoption as Mine,namely, circumcision. This aggravates the guilt of sacrificing themto Molech.
to be devourednotmerely to pass through the fire, as sometimes children weremade to do (Le 18:21) withouthurt, but to pass through so as to be made the food of theflame in honor of idols (see on Isa57:5; Jer 7:31; Jer19:5; Jer 32:35).
Is this of thy whoredoms asmall matter, that thou hast slain my childrenrather, “Werethy whoredoms a small matter (that is, not enough, but) that thouhast slain (that is, must also slay),” &c. As if thyunchastity was not enough, thou hast added this unnatural andsacrilegious cruelty (Mic 6:7).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters,…. Their own flesh and blood; which were more than to take their clothes, and cover their idols with them, and their food, and set it before them to part with them was much, but to part with these, and that in such a shocking manner as after mentioned, was so irrational and unnatural, as well as impious and wicked, as is not to be paralleled; and what increased their wickedness was, that these were not only their own, but the Lord’s:
whom thou hast borne unto me; for, though they were born of them, they were born unto the Lord, the Creator of them, the Father of their spirits, and God of their lives, and who had the sole right to dispose of them; nor was it in the power of their parents to take away their life at pleasure; for the Lord only has the sovereign power of life and death:
and these hast thou sacrificed unto them: the male images before mentioned; one of which was Molech, who is here particularly designed:
to be devoured; in the arms of that image; or to be consumed by fire, in which they were burnt, when sacrificed unto it. The Targum is,
“for oblation and worship;”
[is this] of thy whoredoms a small matter; which was so dreadfully heinous and inhuman, yet by some reckoned a small matter; this was not the least of their idolatries, but, of all, the most shocking, and the most aggravated: or the sense is, is it a small thing that thou shouldest play the harlot, or worship idols? is it not enough for thee to do so, but thou must sacrifice thy children also to them? and which are not only thine, but mine, as follows:
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Here God blames them for another crime, that of sacrificing their offspring to idols. This was a very blind superstition, by which parents put off the sense of humanity. It is indeed a detestable prodigy when a father rejects his children, and has no regard or respect for them. Even philosophers place among the principles of nature those affections which they call natural affections. (98) When, therefore, the affection of a father towards his children ceases, which is naturally implanted in all our hearts, then a man becomes a monster indeed. But not only did an inconsiderate fury seize upon the Jews, but, by slaying their own offspring, they thought that they obeyed God, as at this day the Papists are content with the name of good intentions, and do not think that any offering can be rejected if it be only daubed over with the title of either good intention or zeal for good. Such also was the confidence of the Jews; but, as I have said, we see that they were seized with a diabolic fury when they slew their sons and daughters. Abraham prepared to offer his son to God, but he had a clear command. (Gen 22:9, and Heb 11:19.)
Then we know that his obedience was founded on faith, because he was certainly persuaded, as the Apostle says, that a new offspring could spring up from the ashes of his son. Since, therefore, he extols the power of God as equal to this effect, he did not hesitate to slay his son. But since these wretches slew their sons without a command, they must be deservedly condemned for prodigious madness. The Prophet therefore now brings this crime before us: that they had taken, their sons and their daughters, and slew them to idols. He now adds, to consume them, since it is probable, and may be collected from various passages, that the sons were not always slain, but there were two kinds of offerings. (99) Sometimes they either slew their sons or cast them alive into the fire and burnt them as victims. Sometimes they carried them round and passed them through the fire, so that they received them safe again. But God here shows that he treats of that barbarous and cruel offering, since they did not spare their sons.
In this sense he adds, that they slew their sons to eat them up, or consume them. But another exaggeration of their crime is mentioned, when God expostulates concerning the insult offered: thou, says he, hath slain thy sons and daughters, but they are mine also, for you barest them to me. Here God places himself in the position of a parent, because he had adopted the people as his own: the body of the people was as it were his spouse or wife. All their offspring were his sons, since, if God’s treaty with the people was a marriage, all who sprung from the people ought to be esteemed his children. God therefore calls those his sons who were thus slain, just as if a husband should reproach his wife with depriving him of their common children. God therefore not only blames their cruelty and superstition, but adds also that he was deprived of his children. But this, as is well known, is a most atrocious kind of injury. For who does not prefer his own blood to either fields, or merchandise, or money? As children are more precious than all goods, so a father is more grievously injured if children are taken away, as God here pronounces that he had done: you had born them unto me, says he. Hence sacrilege was added to idolatry when you did deprive me of them. He will soon call them again his own in the same sense. A question arises here, how God reckons among his sons those who were complete strangers to him? He had said in the beginning of the chapter (Eze 1:3) that the people derived their origin from the Amorites and Hittites, since they had declined from the piety of Abraham and the other fathers. Since then the Jews were cast off while they were in Egypt, and after that had been such breakers of the covenant as the Prophet had thus far shown, were they not aliens? Yes; but God here regards his covenant, which was inviolable and could not be rendered void by man’s perfidy. The Jews, then, of whom the Prophet now speaks, could no longer bear children to God: for he said that the body of the people was like a foul harlot, who walks about and turns round and seeks vague and promiscuous meetings. Since it was so, the children whom such idolaters bore were spurious, instead of being worthy of such honor that God should call them his sons: this is true with respect to them, but as concerns the covenant, they are called sons of God. And this is worthy of observation, because in the Papacy such declension has grown up through many ages, that they have altogether denied God. Hence they have no connection with him, because they have corrupted his whole worship by their sacrilege, and their religion is vitiated in so many ways, that it differs in nothing from the corruption’s of the heathen. And yet it is certain that a portion of God’s covenant remains among them, because although they have cut themselves off from God and altogether abandoned him by their perfidy, yet God remains faithful. (Rom 3:3.) Paul, when he speaks of the Jews, shows that God’s covenant with them is not abolished, although the greater part of the people had utterly abandoned God. So also it must be said of the papists, since it was not in their power to blot out God’s covenant entirely, although with regard to themselves, as I have said, they are without it; and show by their obstinacy that they are the sworn enemies of God. Hence it arises, that our baptism does not need renewal, because although the Devil has long reigned in the papacy, yet he could not altogether extinguish God’s grace: nay, a Church is among them; for otherwise Paul’s prophecy would have been false, when he says that Antichrist was seated in the temple of God. (2Th 2:4.) If in the papacy there had been only Satan’s dungeon or brothel, and no form of a Church had remained in it, this had been a proof that Antichrist did not sit in the temple of God. But this, as I have said, exaggerates their crime, and is very far from enabling them to erect their crests as they do. For when they thunder out with full cheeks — “We are the Church of God,” or, “The seat of the Church is with us,” — the solution is easy; the Church is indeed among them, that is, God has his Church there, but hidden and wonderfully preserved: but it does not follow that they are worthy of any honor; nay, they are more detestable, because they ought to bear sons and daughters to God: but they bear them for the Devil and for idols, as this passage teaches. It follows —
(98) Calvin uses here the appropriate Greek word στόργη
(99) A passage in Dionysius Halicarnassus illustrates this idolatrous practice: “And after this, having ordered that fires should be made before the tents, he brings out the people to leap over the flames, for the purifying of their pollutions.” — Antiq. Romans Bk. 1, sect. 88, p. 72, and marg. 75. Edit. Hudson.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(20) Hast sacrificed unto them, i.e., hast sacrificed the children unto the idols. This was a terrible development of the later idolatries of Israel. At first the custom appears to have been a ceremony of passing young children through the fire to thereby consecrate them to Moloch; but afterwards it became an actual sacrifice of them in the fire to the idol. The Lord speaks of them in Eze. 16:20, as thy children whom thou hast borne unto Me; they were indeed Israels children, but still children whom God had given to her. Then in Eze. 16:21, by a most significant change of the pronoun, He calls them My children, the sin itself being aggravated by giving to the idol that which belonged to Jehovah. The last clause of the verse would be better translated, Were thy whoredoms too little?i.e., was not apostacy enough without adding thereto this terrible and unnatural crime?
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20. These hast thou sacrificed Diodorus (13:37, 39) tells us of the human sacrifices offered to the Carthaginian Baal, or Moloch. These victims were placed on the arms of this cruel god, and from there rolled off into a fiery furnace. There need be no doubt that the practice of child sacrifice is referred to here, although according to the theology of the prophets, idolatry was spiritual death, and to teach one’s children to be idol worshipers was equal to slaying them outright (2Ki 3:27; 2Ki 16:3; 2Ki 17:31; Jer 7:31; Jer 9:5; Jer 22:3; compare Eze 20:25-26.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“Moreover you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you have borne to me, and these you have sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whoredoms a small matter that you have slain my children, and delivered them up, making them pass through the fire to them?”
To all that had gone before they had added this, that their own children whom they had borne to Yahweh, for all the firstborn were especially His, they had passed through the fire to Molech, to be devoured by him in the fire. Were their previous sins of unfaithfulness of such light importance that they could add this gross sin? Note the ‘my children’. They had slain those who belonged to Yahweh by offering them to other gods. Thus they had added theft, murder and sacrilege to their other sins.
Child sacrifice had been long known in Canaan, usually, but not always, to Molech, (Lev 18:21; Lev 20:2-5; Deu 18:10; 2Ki 23:10; Psa 106:38). That was why God had given the important lesson to Abraham that it was not by slaying his son that he would please God (Genesis 22). He learned the lesson that, in the words of Micah, ‘shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does Yahweh require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?’ (Mic 6:6-8). But it seems to have increased dramatically around the period just prior to that in which Ezekiel is speaking (Jer 7:31; Jer 32:35).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Eze 16:20 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,
Ver. 20. Whom thou hast born unto me. ] Who at their birth were mine by virtue of my covenant, and who should therefore have been consecrated unto me. a Polanus here giveth this good note: A Church, though it be idolatrous, may bring forth children to God, by bestowing upon them the sacrament of initiation or regeneration; and God will acknowledge them for his children, till such time as he hath given a bill of divorce to that Church. b This is done whereas she openly betaketh herself to the bed of another husband, by disowning Christ for her God, Lord, Bridegroom, and Mediator; as the Asiatic Church hath done, by defecting first to Nestorianism, and now to Mohammedanism. Let this be well noted against the Anabaptists of these times.
a Diod.
b Pol. in loc.
sacrificed, &c. As offerings to idols. Compare Eze 16:36; Eze 20:26, Eze 20:31; Eze 23:39. 2Ki 16:3. Psa 106:37, Psa 106:38. Isa 57:5. Jer 7:31; Jer 32:35, &c.
whoredoms = idolatries. See notes on Eze 16:15.
thy sons: Eze 16:21, Eze 23:4, Gen 17:7, Exo 13:2, Exo 13:12, Deu 29:11, Deu 29:12
and these: Eze 20:26, Eze 20:31, Eze 23:37, Eze 23:39, 2Ki 16:3, 2Ch 33:6, Psa 106:37, Psa 106:38, Isa 57:5, Jer 7:31, Jer 32:35, Mic 6:7
be devoured: Heb. devour
Is this: Eze 8:17, Jer 2:34, Jer 2:35
Reciprocal: Lev 20:2 – giveth 1Ki 16:31 – as if it had been a light thing 2Ki 3:27 – offered him 2Ch 28:3 – burnt Ecc 7:17 – not Isa 7:13 – Is it a small Jer 19:5 – to burn Eze 16:36 – and by Eze 16:38 – shed Eze 16:45 – that loatheth Eze 23:20 – General Eze 34:18 – a small Hos 2:2 – let Joh 8:41 – we have
Eze 16:20. The lawful intimacy of this wife with her husband had produced sons and daughters for him. In her mad devotion to idolatry she sacrificed these sons and daughters. (That the people of the Lord actually did make human sacrifices, see the note at 2Ki 16:3 in volume 2 of this Commentary.) This unfaithful wife was asked if she regarded such whoredoms (spiritual fornication or idolatry) as a light matter.
Eze 16:20-22. Thou hast taken thy sons, &c., whom thou hast borne unto me Being married to me by a spiritual contract, Eze 16:8. The children, with whom I blessed thee, were mine, being entered into covenant with me, as thou wast, Deu 29:11; Deu 29:22. These thou hast sacrificed unto them to be devoured These very children of mine hast thou destroyed by consuming them with fire. These inhuman sacrifices were offered to the idol Moloch, in the valley of Hinnom. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter Were thy spiritual whoredoms, thy idolatries, a small matter, that thou hast proceeded to this unnatural cruelty? Thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth Thy infant state in Egypt; that miserable condition from which I rescued thee, when I first took notice of thee, and set thee apart for my own people.
16:20 Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne to me, and these hast thou sacrificed to them to {o} be devoured. [Is this] of thy harlotries a small matter,
(o) Meaning by fire, read Lev 18:21, 2Ki 23:10 .
Jerusalem went so far as slaying her own children as sacrifices to idols disregarding the fact that they were also the Lord’s children (2Ki 16:3; 2Ki 21:6; 2Ki 23:10; 2Ch 28:3; Jer 32:35; cf. Lev 18:21; Lev 20:1-5; Deu 12:30-32). Evidently the idolaters first slew the children and then burned their dead bodies as sacrifices.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)