Ezekiel 20:31

31 When you offer your gifts—the sacrifice of your children in the fire—you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. Am I to let you inquire of me, you Israelites? As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I will not let you inquire of me.

Ezekiel 20:31 in Other Translations

KJV
31 For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be enquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by you.
ESV
31 When you present your gifts and offer up your children in fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. And shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you.
NLT
31 For when you offer gifts to them and give your little children to be burned as sacrifices, you continue to pollute yourselves with idols to this day. Should I allow you to ask for a message from me, O people of Israel? As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, I will tell you nothing.
MSG
31 In burning your children as sacrifices, you've become as filthy as your no-god idols - as recently as today! "'Am I going to put up with questions from people like you, Israel? As sure as I am the living God, I, God, the Master, refuse to be called into question by you!
CSB
31 When you offer your gifts, making your children pass through the fire, you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. So should I be consulted by you, house of Israel? As I live"-[this is] the declaration of the Lord God -"I will not be consulted by you!

Ezekiel 20:31 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 20:31

For when ye offer your gifts
And sacrifices to idols. The Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, the firstfruits of your gifts;
it may design their firstborn; see ( Ezekiel 20:26 ) as the following clause seems to explain it: when ye make your sons to pass through the fire;
or between two fires to Moloch, as their fathers had done before them; ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day;
by worshipping idols, or dunghill gods, as the word signifies, as often observed; they defiled themselves with those filthy things, which they continued to do to that very day, and so became more and more polluted; and were as their fathers had been, and therefore must expect to be used in like manner: and shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel?
can you think that I will suffer you to come and inquire of me or to make your requests to me? or can you hope to have an answer from me; at least a favourable one, such as you could wish for? as I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you;
so confirming again with an oath what he had before declared, ( Ezekiel 20:3 ) , wherefore they might assure themselves that they would not be acceptable to him, neither their persons nor petitions, or be regarded by him.

Ezekiel 20:31 In-Context

29 Then I said to them: What is this high place you go to?’ ” (It is called Bamah to this day.)
30 “Therefore say to the Israelites: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Will you defile yourselves the way your ancestors did and lust after their vile images?
31 When you offer your gifts—the sacrifice of your children in the fire—you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. Am I to let you inquire of me, you Israelites? As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I will not let you inquire of me.
32 “ ‘You say, “We want to be like the nations, like the peoples of the world, who serve wood and stone.” But what you have in mind will never happen.
33 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I will reign over you with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath.

Cross References 2

  • 1. S Ezekiel 16:20
  • 2. Psalms 106:37-39; S Jeremiah 7:31; S Ezekiel 14:3; Amos 8:12; Zechariah 7:13
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