Ezekiel 16:20

seq. The sacrifice of children

Jehovah is the husband of the idealized community, and the individual members are his children. Human sacrifices, though rare, were not altogether unknown in early Israel, as the instance of Jephthah proves (Judges 11). They were probably more common among the Canaanites and neighbouring peoples, though perhaps even among them resorted to only on occasions of great trial, in the hope of appeasing the anger or securing the favour of the deity (cf. the tragic story of the king of Moab, 2 Kings 3:27). Instances of human sacrifices do not occur in the early history of Israel, for neither the slaughter of Agag (1 Samuel 15:33) nor the hanging of seven descendants of Saul (2 Samuel 21) comes strictly under the idea of a sacrifice; but Ahaz king of Judah is said to have passed his son through the fire (2 Kings 16:3), and the practice introduced by him was followed by Manasseh (2 Kings 21:6), and must have spread among the people (Jeremiah 7:31; Jeremiah 19:5; Jeremiah 32:35). The phrase "to pass through the fire" might be taken to mean merely a lustration or purification by fire, not implying the death of the child. This cannot, however, have been the case, for this prophet uses the words sacrifice (Ezekiel 16:20) and slaughter (Ezekiel 16:21), and Jeremiah says the people built high places "to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal" (ch. Ezekiel 19:5). The child, of course, was not burnt alive, but slain like other sacrifices, and offered as a burnt offering. The practice was a widespread one in the East, 2 Kings 17:31. See further on ch. Ezekiel 20:25 seq.

20. to be devoured Namely, in the fire.