Ezekiel 23:37

37 They have committed adultery and murder - adultery with idols and murder of the children they bore me. They sacrificed my children to their idols.

Ezekiel 23:37 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 23:37

That they have committed adultery
Either literally, adultery with their neighbours' wives, which was a prevailing sin with this people; or figuratively, spiritual adultery, that is, idolatry: and blood is in their hands;
the Targum is,

``they have shed the blood of innocents with their hands;''
the blood of prophets and righteous men, sent unto them; and the blood of their infants in sacrificing to idols, as after mentioned: and with their idols have they committed adultery;
by worshipping them, which is spiritual adultery; and this being so explicitly mentioned, it seems to be distinguished from corporeal adultery in the first clause, which may be only there designed; and so Kimchi thinks: and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for
them through the fire, to devour them;
their children, who were the Lord's by national adoption, and who ought to have been trained up in the worship and service of God, were, in a most barbarous and unnatural manner, caused to pass through the fire, for or to the idols Molech and Baal; and that not merely by way of lustration and dedication, which was sometimes done by passing between two fires, but so as to be devoured and destroyed by the fire.

Ezekiel 23:37 In-Context

35 Now this is what the Sovereign Lord is saying: "Because you forgot me and turned your back on me, you will suffer for your lust and your prostitution."
36 The Lord said to me, "Mortal man, are you ready to judge Oholah and Oholibah? Accuse them of the disgusting things they have done
37 They have committed adultery and murder - adultery with idols and murder of the children they bore me. They sacrificed my children to their idols.
38 And that is not all they did. They profaned my Temple and broke the Sabbath, which I had established
39 The very day that they killed my children as sacrifices to idols, they came to my Temple and profaned it!
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.