
Text -- Ezekiel 16:21 (NET)




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collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)
Wesley -> Eze 16:21
For the idols.
JFB: Eze 16:20-21 - -- Though "thy children," yet they belong "unto Me," rather than to thee, for they were born under the immutable covenant with Israel, which even Israel'...
Though "thy children," yet they belong "unto Me," rather than to thee, for they were born under the immutable covenant with Israel, which even Israel's sin could not set aside, and they have received the sign of adoption as Mine, namely, circumcision. This aggravates the guilt of sacrificing them to Molech.

JFB: Eze 16:20-21 - -- Not merely to pass through the fire, as sometimes children were made to do (Lev 18:21) without hurt, but to pass through so as to be made the food of ...

JFB: Eze 16:20-21 - -- Rather, "Were thy whoredoms a small matter (that is, not enough, but) that thou hast slain (that is, must also slay)," &c. As if thy unchastity was no...
Rather, "Were thy whoredoms a small matter (that is, not enough, but) that thou hast slain (that is, must also slay)," &c. As if thy unchastity was not enough, thou hast added this unnatural and sacrilegious cruelty (Mic 6:7).
Clarke -> Eze 16:21
Clarke: Eze 16:21 - -- To cause them to pass through the fire - Bp. Newcome quotes a very apposite passage from Dionysius Halicarnass. Ant. Romans lib. i., s. 88, p. 72, a...
To cause them to pass through the fire - Bp. Newcome quotes a very apposite passage from Dionysius Halicarnass. Ant. Romans lib. i., s. 88, p. 72, and marg. p. 75, Edit. Hudson:
Calvin -> Eze 16:21
Calvin: Eze 16:21 - -- He strengthens the same sentence, and more clearly explains that they offered their sons and daughters by cruelly sacrificing them when they passed t...
He strengthens the same sentence, and more clearly explains that they offered their sons and daughters by cruelly sacrificing them when they passed them through the fire. This was a kind of purifying, as we have seen elsewhere. When, therefore, they passed their children through the fire, it was a rite of illustration and expiation; and they brought them to the fire, as I have lately explained, in two different ways. Here the Prophet speaks especially of that cruel and brutal offering. We have already mentioned the sense in which God claims a right in the sons of his people, not as members of the Church properly speaking, but as adopted by God. And here again we must hold what Paul says, that all the progeny of Abraham were not lawful sons, since a difference must be made between sons of the flesh and sons of promise. (Rom 9:7.) This is as yet partially obscure, but it may be shortly explained. We may remark that there was a twofold election of God: since speaking generally, he chose the whole family of Abraham. For circumcision was common to all, being the symbol and seal of adoption: since when God wished all the sons of Abraham to be circumcised from the least to the greatest, he at the same time chose them as his sons: this was one kind of adoption or election. But the other was secret, because God took to himself out of that multitude those whom he wished: and these are sons of promise, these are remnants of gratuitous favor, as Paul says. (Rom 11:8.) This distinction, therefore, now takes away all doubt, since the Prophet speaks of the unbelievers and the profane who had departed from the worship of God. For this their unbelief was a complete abdication. It is true, then, that as far as themselves were concerned, they were strangers, and so God’s secret election did not flourish in them, but yet they were God’s people, as far as relates to external profession. If any one objects that this circumcision was useless, and hence their election without the slightest effect, the answer is at hand: God by his singular kindness honored those miserable ones by opening a way of approach for them to the hope of life and salvation by the outward testimonies of adoption. Then as to their being at the same time strangers, that happened through their own fault. Hence we may shortly hold, that the Jews were naturally accursed through being Adam’s seed: but by supernatural and singular privilege, they were exempt and free from the curse: since circumcision was a testimony of the adoption by which God had consecrated them to himself: hence they were holy; and as to their being impure, it could not, as we have said, abolish God’s covenant. The same thing ought at this time to prevail in the Papacy. For we are all born under the curse: and yet God acknowledges supernaturally as his sons all who spring from the faithful, not only in the first or second degree, but even to a thousand generations. And so Paul says that the children of the faithful are holy, since baptism does not lose its efficacy, and the adoption of God remains fixed, (1Co 7:14,) yet the greater part is without the covenant through their own unbelief. God meanwhile has preserved to himself a remnant in all ages, and at this day he chooses whom he will out of the promiscuous multitude.
Now let us go on. I had omitted at the end of the last verse the phrase, Are thy fornications a small matter? By this question God wishes to press the Jews home, since they had not only violated their conjugal fidelity by prostituting themselves to idols, but had added the cruelty which we have seen in slaying their sons. Lastly, he shows that their impiety was desperate.
TSK -> Eze 16:21
TSK: Eze 16:21 - -- my children : Psa 106:37
to pass : Lev 18:21, Lev 20:1-5; Deu 18:10; 2Ki 17:17, 2Ki 21:6, 2Ki 23:10
my children : Psa 106:37
to pass : Lev 18:21, Lev 20:1-5; Deu 18:10; 2Ki 17:17, 2Ki 21:6, 2Ki 23:10

collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)
Barnes -> Eze 16:20-21
Barnes: Eze 16:20-21 - -- Borne unto me - me is emphatic. The children of Yahweh have been devoted to Moloch. The rites of Moloch were twofold; \tx1080 (1) The actual s...
Borne unto me - me is emphatic. The children of Yahweh have been devoted to Moloch. The rites of Moloch were twofold;
\tx1080 (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 Eze 16:20; the two rites together in Eze 16:21.
Poole -> Eze 16:21
Poole: Eze 16:21 - -- Thy blind superstition called this religion, and accounted it sacrifice, but truth is it was unnatural murder; it is as if thou hadst cut their thro...
Thy blind superstition called this religion, and accounted it sacrifice, but truth is it was unnatural murder; it is as if thou hadst cut their throat, nay, worse, because it put them to greater torture. The word is used Isa 57:5 Hos 5:2 .
My children sons here are first-born, which peculiarly were devoted to God, he reserved a special right in these, and yet this cruel mother, this perfidious wife, this sacrilegious adulteress, sacrificeth these to her idols.
Delivered them either gave them to the idol’ s priests, or rather with her own hands gave them, i.e. led them through the fire, if lustrated, or put them into the idol’ s arms of brass or iron, which grasped them fast whilst they were consumed with fire that made the idol red hot.
For them for the idol’ s worship, or possibly for the parents, who did wickedly imagine this a way to preserve and prosper the rest of their children.
Gill -> Eze 16:21
Gill: Eze 16:21 - -- 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 part...
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 Eze 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.

expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

expand allCommentary -- Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis -> Eze 16:1-63
TSK Synopsis: Eze 16:1-63 - --1 Under the similitude of a wretched infant is shewn the natural state of Jerusalem.6 God's extraordinary love towards her.15 Her monstrous whoredom.3...
MHCC -> Eze 16:1-58
MHCC: Eze 16:1-58 - --In this chapter God's dealings with the Jewish nation, and their conduct towards him, are described, and their punishment through the surrounding nati...
Matthew Henry -> Eze 16:15-34
Matthew Henry: Eze 16:15-34 - -- In these verses we have an account of the great wickedness of the people of Israel, especially in worshipping idols, notwithstanding the great favou...
Keil-Delitzsch -> Eze 16:15-22
Keil-Delitzsch: Eze 16:15-22 - --
The apostasy of Israel. Its origin and nature, Eze 16:15-22; its magnitude and extent, Eze 16:23-34. In close connection with what precedes, this ap...
Constable: Eze 4:1--24:27 - --II. Oracles of judgment on Judah and Jerusalem for sin chs. 4-24
This section of the book contains prophecies th...

Constable: Eze 12:1--19:14 - --C. Yahweh's reply to the invalid hopes of the Israelites chs. 12-19
"The exiles had not grasped the seri...

Constable: Eze 16:1-63 - --7. Jerusalem's history as a prostitute ch. 16
This chapter is the longest prophetic message in t...
