Ezekiel 23:36-39 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah That is, Samaria and Jerusalem? The meaning is, Wilt thou not judge, or, Wilt thou not condemn them? That they have committed adultery, and blood is, &c. That they have been guilty of the heinous sins of murder and adultery; and have also caused their sons, &c. Have caused their children, who of right belonged to me, and who ought to have been bred up to be my worshippers, to be burned in the fire, by way of sacrifice in honour to false gods. They have defiled my sanctuary in the same day They have also come directly from these idolatrous and abominable rites and sacrifices into my temple, as though they could worship me acceptably when they were thus horribly polluted. And have profaned my sabbaths Have spent the sabbaths, which I appointed to be observed to my honour alone, in the service and to the honour of idols. Or, they profaned them by coming into God's courts to observe them, immediately after they had defiled themselves by their idolatrous and horrid ceremonies. For when they had slain their children to their idols To my great dishonour, and the reproach of the human nature; then they came into my sanctuary With their hands imbrued, and their clothes stained with their children's blood, to present themselves before me; expecting acceptance with me notwithstanding their villanies, as if I either did not know their wickedness, or did not hate it. And lo, thus have they done in the midst of my house In the inward part of my temple. Some expound the words, of their setting up idols in the very temple, and worshipping them there.