Ezekiel 23:37

37 For they committed adultery, and blood [is] on their hands, and they committed adultery with their idols, and even their children that they had borne for me--they sacrificed them as food!

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 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because you have forgotten me, and you threw me behind your back, now in turn you bear your obscene conduct and your whorings."

36 And Yahweh said to me, "Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah and declare their abominable deeds to them

37 For they committed adultery, and blood [is] on their hands, and they committed adultery with their idols, and even their children that they had borne for me--they sacrificed them as food!

38 Also they did this to me: they defiled my sanctuary on that day, and they profaned my Sabbaths

39 and when they slaughtered their children for their idols, they came to my sanctuary on that day to profane it. And look, {this is what they did in my house}!