Yehezkiel 20:26

20:26 I declared them to be defiled because of their sacrifices ¹  – they caused all their first born to pass through the fire ²  – so that I would devastate them, so that they will know that I am the Lord.’ ³ 

Yehezkiel 20:31

20:31 When you present your sacrifices ⁴  – when you make your sons pass through the fire – you defile yourselves with all your idols to this very day. Will I allow you to seek me, ⁵  O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I will not allow you to seek me! ⁶ 

Yehezkiel 23:37-39

23:37 For they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and their sons, whom they bore to me, ⁷  they have passed through the fire as food to their idols. ⁸  23:38 Moreover, they have done this to me: In the very same day ⁹  they desecrated my sanctuary and profaned my Sabbaths. 23:39 On the same day they slaughtered their sons for their idols, they came to my sanctuary to desecrate it. This is what they have done in the middle of my house.

[20:26]  ¹ tn Or “gifts.”

[20:26]  ² sn This act is prohibited in Deut 12:29-31 and Jer 7:31; 19:5; 32:35. See also 2 Kgs 21:6; 23:10. This custom indicates that the laws the Israelites were following were the disastrous laws of pagan nations (see Ezek 16:20-21).

[20:26]  ³ sn God sometimes punishes sin by inciting the sinner to sin even more, as the biblical examples of divine hardening and deceit make clear. See Robert B. Chisholm, Jr., “Divine Hardening in the Old Testament,” BSac 153 (1996): 410-34; idem, “Does God Deceive?” BSac 155 (1998): 11-28. For other instances where the Lord causes individuals to act unwisely or even sinfully as punishment for sin, see 1 Sam 2:25; 2 Sam 17:14; 1 Kgs 12:15; 2 Chr 25:20.

[20:31]  ⁴ tn Or “gifts.”

[20:31]  ⁵ tn Or “Will I reveal myself to you?”

[20:31]  ⁶ tn Or “I will not reveal myself to you.”

[23:37]  ⁷ sn The Lord speaks here in the role of the husband of the sisters.

[23:37]  ⁸ tn Heb “they have passed to them for food.” The verb is commonly taken to refer to passing children through fire, especially as an offering to the pagan god Molech. See Jer 32:35.

[23:38]  ⁹ tn Heb “in that day.”