Ezekiel 20:31 kjv
For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be enquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by you.
Ezekiel 20:31 nkjv
For when you offer your gifts and make your sons pass through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols, even to this day. So shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live," says the Lord GOD, "I will not be inquired of by you.
Ezekiel 20:31 niv
When you offer your gifts?the sacrifice of your children in the fire?you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. Am I to let you inquire of me, you Israelites? As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I will not let you inquire of me.
Ezekiel 20:31 esv
When you present your gifts and offer up your children in fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. And shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you.
Ezekiel 20:31 nlt
For when you offer gifts to them and give your little children to be burned as sacrifices, you continue to pollute yourselves with idols to this day. Should I allow you to ask for a message from me, O people of Israel? As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, I will tell you nothing.
Ezekiel 20 31 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Ezekiel 20:31 | "And when you offer your gifts, when you make your sons pass through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols until this day." | God's Judgment on Idolatry |
| Jeremiah 7:31 | "And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I commanded them not, nor did it come into my heart." | Condemnation of Child Sacrifice |
| Leviticus 18:21 | "You shall not give any of your children to devoted them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD." | Prohibition of Molech Worship |
| Deuteronomy 12:31 | "You shall not do so to the LORD your God, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods." | Warning against Idolatrous Practices |
| 2 Kings 17:17 | "And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings, and practiced divination and dealt with spirits and wizards. They did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger." | Northern Kingdom's Idolatry |
| Psalm 106:37 | "They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons." | Description of Idolatrous Sacrifice |
| Isaiah 57:5 | "You burn with gods under the oak, and under every green tree you kill your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks you hide." | Further condemnation of child sacrifice |
| Micah 6:7 | "Does the LORD delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" | Questioning the efficacy of rituals |
| Romans 1:25 | "because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen." | Worshiping the created instead of the Creator |
| Galatians 5:19-20 | "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." | Works of the flesh include idolatry |
| 1 Corinthians 10:14 | "Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry." | Exhortation to flee from idolatry |
| 1 John 5:21 | "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." | Final warning against idolatry |
| Deuteronomy 18:10 | "There shall not be found among you anyone who passes his son or his daughter through the fire, or who uses divination or makes clouds a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who consults the dead." | Explicit prohibition of various occult practices |
| Jeremiah 19:5 | "And they have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal, which I did not command nor did it enter my mind." | Baal worship and child sacrifice |
| Ezekiel 16:20-21 | "You took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to me, and offered them to them as food. Was it too little of your whoredoms, that you killed my children and offered them to them?" | Jerusalem compared to an unfaithful wife |
| Amos 5:26 | "You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your gods, your star images that you made for yourselves," | Prophecy against Israel's idolatry |
| Hosea 4:17 | "Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone." | Ephraim's continued devotion to idols |
| Zephaniah 1:5 | "and also those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops, and those who worship and bow down to the LORD and yet swear by Milcom." | Worship of heavenly host and foreign gods |
| Acts 15:20 | "but rather should write to them to abstain from the pollutions of idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood." | Early church directive concerning idols |
| Revelation 2:14 | "But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality." | Condemnation of those tolerating idolatry |
Ezekiel 20 verses
Ezekiel 20 31 Meaning
This verse describes God’s confrontation with the rebellious Israelites. He asks if they will serve their idols and accept their idols as their response, a rhetorical question highlighting their spiritual adultery and the futility of their actions. It points to God’s judgment on their persistent sin and rejection of Him.
Ezekiel 20 31 Context
Ezekiel 20 is a lengthy chapter where the prophet confronts the elders of Israel, recounting God’s history with them. The chapter details God’s faithfulness and Israel’s repeated unfaithfulness, including their practice of idolatry and child sacrifice, particularly during their time in Egypt and their subsequent journey through the wilderness and in the Promised Land. Verse 31 is a pivotal part of God's accusation, directly referencing the abhorrent practices they continued to engage in. Historically, child sacrifice, especially to deities like Molech, was a widespread pagan practice in the ancient Near East. For Israel, this was a grave violation of God's covenant and a direct affront to His exclusivity as the one true God.
Ezekiel 20 31 Word Analysis
וּבְהַקְרִיבְכֶם (uv'hacr'bkem) - "and when you offer" or "when you present." This points to the ritualistic acts of worship.
אֶת־מִנְחַתְכֶם (et-minchatchem) - "your gifts" or "your offerings." This refers to the sacrifices and tribute brought to deities, specifically idols in this context.
וְאֶת־מַסֵּיכֶם (v'et-masechem) - "and your libations" or "your drink offerings." These are liquid offerings like wine, poured out as part of worship.
אֶת־אֵשׁ (et-esh) - "your fire." This refers to the practice of passing children through fire or burning them as sacrifices.
לְהַעֲבִיר (leh'avir) - "to cause to pass" or "to make pass." This verb is used in the context of ritualistic passage, often through fire or for dedication.
בָּאֵשׁ (ba'esh) - "through the fire." Explicitly denotes the act of sacrificial burning or exposure to fire.
בָּאֵשׁ (ba'esh) - "with fire." Repeats "fire" to emphasize the specific mode of offering.
מִכֹּל (mikol) - "from all." Indicates the totality and pervasiveness of the defilement.
טוּמְאֹתֵיכֶם (tum'oteychem) - "your impurities" or "your uncleannesses." This refers to ritualistic defilement through idolatry and sinful practices.
עַד־הַיּוֹם (ad-hayom) - "until this day." Signifies that these abominable practices were ongoing and not historical events in the distant past.
וְטִמֵּאתֶם (v'tim'tem) - "and you defile yourselves." A causative sense of making oneself unclean.
מִזְבַּחֲכֶם (mizbach'chem) - "your altar." Refers to the places where their idol worship and sacrifices were conducted.
Groups of Words/Phrases:
- "your gifts" and "your libations": These paired terms represent the complete array of sacrifices presented to their gods.
- "make your sons pass through the fire": This phrase specifically identifies the horrific practice of child sacrifice, a hallmark of Canaanite and other pagan religions that Israel had adopted. It implies not necessarily immediate burning, but ritualistic exposure or offering to fire as part of a cultic act.
- "you defile yourselves with all your impurities until this day": This strongly condemns their persistent sin, framing their entire religious practice centered on idols as defiling and offensive to God, extending their corruption to the very instruments of worship (altars).
Ezekiel 20 31 Bonus Section
The specific practice of "making your sons pass through the fire" (literally, to cause to pass through fire) is deeply connected to the worship of Molech (Lev 18:21). While interpretations vary on the exact methodology – some suggest walking between fires, others full cremation – the underlying theme is consecrating children to an idol, a complete betrayal of parental and covenantal responsibility. This spiritual perversion is set against God's earlier commandment that their firstborn animals were to be dedicated to Him, not humans to idols. Ezekiel 20 is part of a larger polemic by the prophets against syncretism, where foreign idolatrous practices mingled with the worship of Yahweh, leading to severe judgment from God.
Ezekiel 20 31 Commentary
This verse serves as a stark accusation by God against Israel for their persistent idolatry and the extreme abhorrence of child sacrifice. The repetitive use of "fire" highlights the dreadful nature of their worship, directly linking their offerings and the "defilement" of their altars to their sin. God’s question, "will you also be profaned by the rest of your idols?" implies that even their most egregious acts like child sacrifice were not a deviation but a culmination of their deeper spiritual unfaithfulness. Their entire worship system had become corrupted. The phrase "until this day" emphasizes that these were not ancient historical sins but ongoing practices, showing their continuous rebellion. It underscores God's awareness of and displeasure with their corrupted worship.