Ezekiel 16:20 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Bible Comments

Hast sacrificed unto them, i.e., hast sacrificed the children unto the idols. This was a terrible development of the later idolatries of Israel. At first the custom appears to have been a ceremony of passing young children through the fire to thereby consecrate them to Moloch; but afterwards it became an actual sacrifice of them in the fire to the idol. The Lord speaks of them in Ezekiel 16:20, as “thy children whom thou hast borne unto Me;” they were indeed Israel’s children, but still children whom God had given to her. Then in Ezekiel 16:21, by a most significant change of the pronoun, He calls them “My children,” the sin itself being aggravated by giving to the idol that which belonged to Jehovah. The last clause of the verse would be better translated, Were thy whoredoms too little? — i.e., was not apostacy enough without adding thereto this terrible and unnatural crime?

Ezekiel 16:20

20 Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,