Ezekiel 23:37

37 Because they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and they have committed fornication with their idols: moreover also their children, whom they bore to me, they have offered to them to be devoured.

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 saith the Lord God: Because thou hast forgotten me, and hast cast me off behind thy back, bear thou also thy wickedness, and thy fornications.
36 And the Lord spoke to me, saying: Son of man, dost thou judge Oolla, and Ooliba, and dost thou declare to them their wicked deeds
37 Because they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and they have committed fornication with their idols: moreover also their children, whom they bore to me, they have offered to them to be devoured.
38 Yea, and they have done this to me. They polluted my sanctuary on the same day, and profaned my sabbaths
39 And when they sacrificed their children to their idols, and went into my sanctuary the same day to profane it: they did these things even in the midst of my house.
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