Ezekiel 23:37

37 For they did adultery, and blood was in the hands of them, and they did fornication with their idols; furthermore and they offered to those (idols) the sons which they engendered to me, for to be devoured. (For they did adultery, and blood was upon their hands, and they did fornication, or idolatry, with their idols; and furthermore they offered the children whom they begat for me, to those idols 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 the Lord God saith these things, For thou hast forgotten me, and hast cast forth me behind thy body (and hast thrown me away behind thy back), bear thou also thy great trespass and thy fornications.
36 And the Lord God said to me, and spake, Son of man, whether thou deemest Oholibah and Oholah, and tellest to them the great trespasses of them? (And the Lord God spoke to me, and said, Son of man, judgest thou Oholibah and Oholah, and tellest them their great trespasses?
37 For they did adultery, and blood was in the hands of them, and they did fornication with their idols; furthermore and they offered to those (idols) the sons which they engendered to me, for to be devoured. (For they did adultery, and blood was upon their hands, and they did fornication, or idolatry, with their idols; and furthermore they offered the children whom they begat for me, to those idols to be devoured.)
38 But also they did this to me, they defouled my saintuary in that day, and made unholy my sabbaths. (But they also did this to me, they defiled my sanctuary on that day, and made my sabbaths unholy.
39 And when they sacrificed their sons to their idols, and entered into my saintuary in that day, that they should defoul it, they did also these things in the midst of mine house. (And when they sacrificed their sons and daughters to their idols, and entered into my sanctuary on that day, so that they could defile it, they also did these things in the midst of my House.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.