Ezekiel 16:21

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
You slaughtered my children and gave them up when you passed them through the fire to the images.

Hebrew Names Version
that you have slain my children, and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through [the fire] to them?

King James Version
That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?

English Standard Version
that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?

New American Standard Bible
"You slaughtered My children and offered them to idols by making them pass through the fire.

New Century Version
You killed my children and offered them up in fire to the idols.

Amplified Bible
"You slaughtered My children and offered them up to [worthless] idols, forcing them to pass through the [hideousness of the] fire.

World English Bible
that you have slain my children, and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through [the fire] to them?

Geneva Bible (1587)
That thou hast slaine my children, and deliuered them to cause them to passe through fire for them?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"You slaughtered My children and offered them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire.

Legacy Standard Bible
You slaughtered My children and gave them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire.

Berean Standard Bible
You slaughtered My children and delivered them up through the fire to idols.

Contemporary English Version
You slaughtered my children, so you could offer them as sacrifices.

Complete Jewish Bible
killing my children, handing them over and setting them apart for [these idols]?

Darby Translation
that thou didst slay my children and give them up in passing them over to them?

Easy-to-Read Version
You slaughtered my sons and then passed them through the fire to those false gods.

George Lamsa Translation
That you have slaughtered my children, and offered them to the idols after you had been ravished by them.

Good News Translation
without taking my children and sacrificing them to idols?

Lexham English Bible
And you slaughtered my children, and you gave them to be sacrificed to them.

Literal Translation
You have slaughtered My sons, and you gave them to cause these to pass through the fire for them.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
that thou slayest my children, and geuest them ouer, to be bret vnto them?

American Standard Version
that thou hast slain my children, and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through the fire unto them?

Bible in Basic English
That you put my children to death and gave them up to go through the fire to them?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
that thou hast slain My children, and delivered them up, in setting them apart unto them?

King James Version (1611)
That thou hast slaine my children, and deliuered them to cause them to passe through the fire for them?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And thou hast slayne my chyldren, and deliuered them, to cause them to passe [through the fire] for them.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
and didst slay thy children, and gavest them up in offering them to them for an expiation.

English Revised Version
that thou hast slain my children, and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through the fire unto them?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Thou offridist my sones, and yauest hem, and halewidist to tho.

Update Bible Version
that you have slain my sons, and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through [the fire] to them?

Webster's Bible Translation
That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through [the fire] for them?

New English Translation
you slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols.

New King James Version
that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the fire?

New Living Translation
Must you also slaughter my children by sacrificing them to idols?

New Life Bible
You killed My children and gave them as burnt gifts to false gods.

New Revised Standard
You slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering to them.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Yea thou didst slay my children, - And didst deliver them up. that they should be caused to pass through the fire unto them.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Thou hast sacrificed and given my children to them, consecrating them by fire.

Revised Standard Version
that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?

Young's Literal Translation
That thou dost slaughter My sons, And dost give them up in causing them to pass over to them?

Contextual Overview

¹⁵"‘But your beauty went to your head and you became a common whore, grabbing anyone coming down the street and taking him into your bed. You took your fine dresses and made "tents" of them, using them as brothels in which you practiced your trade. This kind of thing should never happen, never. ¹⁷"‘And then you took all that fine jewelry I gave you, my gold and my silver, and made pornographic images of them for your brothels. You decorated your beds with fashionable silks and cottons, and perfumed them with my aromatic oils and incense. And then you set out the wonderful foods I provided—the fresh breads and fruits, with fine herbs and spices, which were my gifts to you—and you served them as delicacies in your whorehouses. That's what happened, says God , the Master. ²⁰"‘And then you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had given birth to as my children, and you killed them, sacrificing them to idols. Wasn't it bad enough that you had become a whore? And now you're a murderer, killing my children and sacrificing them to idols. ²² "‘Not once during these years of outrageous obscenities and whorings did you remember your infancy, when you were naked and exposed, a blood-smeared newborn. ²³"‘And then to top off all your evil acts, you built your bold brothels in every town square. Doom! Doom to you, says God , the Master! At every major intersection you built your bold brothels and exposed your sluttish sex, spreading your legs for everyone who passed by. ²⁵"‘And then you went international with your whoring. You fornicated with the Egyptians, seeking them out in their sex orgies. The more promiscuous you became, the angrier I got. Finally, I intervened, reduced your borders and turned you over to the rapacity of your enemies. Even the Philistine women—can you believe it?—were shocked at your sluttish life. ²⁸"‘You went on to fornicate with the Assyrians. Your appetite was insatiable. But still you weren't satisfied. You took on the Babylonians, a country of businessmen, and still you weren't satisfied. ³⁰"‘What a sick soul! Doing all this stuff—the champion whore! You built your bold brothels at every major intersection, opened up your whorehouses in every neighborhood, but you were different from regular whores in that you wouldn't accept a fee. ³²"‘Wives who are unfaithful to their husbands accept gifts from their lovers. And men commonly pay their whores. But you pay your lovers! You bribe men from all over to come to bed with you! You're just the opposite of the regular whores who get paid for sex. Instead, you pay men for their favors! You even pervert whoredom!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

my children: Psalms 106:37

to pass: Leviticus 18:21, Leviticus 20:1-5, Deuteronomy 18:10, 2 Kings 17:17, 2 Kings 21:6, 2 Kings 23:10

Reciprocal: Leviticus 20:2 - giveth 2 Kings 16:3 - made his son 2 Chronicles 28:3 - burnt Jeremiah 2:34 - Also Jeremiah 19:5 - to burn Jeremiah 32:35 - they built Ezekiel 16:20 - thy sons Ezekiel 16:36 - and by Ezekiel 16:38 - shed Ezekiel 16:45 - that loatheth Ezekiel 20:26 - in that Ezekiel 23:37 - have also Micah 6:7 - shall John 8:41 - we have

Gill's Notes on the Bible

That thou hast slain my children,.... By creation, as all born into the world are; and by national adoption, as all the Jewish children were; and particularly the firstborn were eminently his, and which are here designed, as Jarchi interprets it; for they were the children that were slain and sacrificed to Molech; see Ezekiel 20:26;

and delivered, them to cause them to pass through [the fire] for them? for the sake of idols, for the worship of them; this they did before they were slain; they first caused them to pass through between two fires, and so dedicated them to the idol, and then slew them; or slew them by burning them in the fire, or by putting them into the arms of the "idol", made burning hot.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Borne unto me - me is emphatic. The children of Yahweh have been devoted to Moloch. The rites of Moloch were twofold;

(1) The actual sacrifice of men and children as expiatory sacrifices to, false gods.

(2) The passing of them through the fire by way of purification and dedication.

Probably the first is alluded to in Ezekiel 16:20; the two rites together in Ezekiel 16:21.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ezekiel 16:21. To cause them to pass through the fire — Bp. Newcome quotes a very apposite passage from Dionysius Halicarnass. Ant. Rom. lib. i., s. 88, p. 72, and marg. p. 75, Edit. Hudson: Μετα δε τουτο, πυρκαΐας προ των σκηνων γενεσθαι κελευσας, εξαγει τον λεων τας φλογας ὑπερθρωσκοντα,της ὁσιωσεως των μιασματων ἑνεκα. "And after this, having ordered that fires should be made before the tents, he brings out the people to leap over the flames, for the purifying of their pollutions." This example shows that we are not always to take passing through the fire for being entirely consumed by it. Among the Israelites this appears to have been used as a rite of consecration.