What Does Ezekiel 20:31 Mean?
For when you lift your gifts, when you make your sons pass through the fire, you make yourselves unclean with all your idols, even to this day. And shall I be sought by you, O house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord GOD, I will not be sought by you.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
In Hebrew, the same verb describes making the gifts pass and making the sons pass through fire, binding religious offering to the violence beside it.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two acts together: gifts are made to pass, and sons are made to pass through fire, while idols pollute the worshippers. The living LORD then refuses to be sought by this house, making clear that sacred activity does not erase what the same worship contains.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A religious offering can make an approach acceptable even while idolatry and violence remain.
THE ROOT
בְּהַעֲבִירְכֶם
beha'avirkhem
GROWS FROM
עבר
To pass over, across, or through; in this form, to cause something to pass.
“offer / make pass through” in this verse is beha'avirkhem. The verb translated offer for the gifts is the same verb used for making the sons pass through fire. The shared wording makes the ritual gifts and the act of violence part of one exposed pattern.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvar: To pass over or cross.
עָבַר
This verb is the seed beneath both actions in the verse, joining what English renders as offering and passing through.
ʿēver: The other side; beyond or across.
עֵבֶר
This related word preserves the root’s sense of crossing from one side to another, making the repeated movement in the verse more visible.
וַתִּטַּמְּאוּ
vattitammə'u
GROWS FROM
טמא
To be or become unclean.
“make yourselves unclean” in this verse is vattitammə'u. The verse describes pollution as a condition the worshippers enter through their idols, not as something an offering can cover over. Related forms name both the unclean state and the uncleanness itself.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāmēʾ: Unclean.
טָמֵא
This adjective names the state the verse says the worshippers enter through their idols.
ṭumʾāh: Uncleanness or impurity.
טֻמְאָה
This noun names the condition associated with the root, showing that the pollution is not just a momentary act.
אִדָּרֵשׁ
iddārēš
GROWS FROM
דרש
To seek, inquire, or resort to.
The question is whether the LORD is to be sought by this house, and the answer is a refusal. The root holds inquiry and seeking together, so the verse concerns the whole approach, not merely a request for information.
ALSO GROWS
dāraš: To seek or inquire.
דָּרַשׁ
This verb is the root beneath the verse’s question about whether the LORD will be sought.
midrāš: An inquiry or interpretive exposition.
מִדְרָשׁ
This related noun retains the root’s movement of seeking, showing how inquiry can extend into sustained examination.
THE PATTERN
Ritual approach does not guarantee a divine answer when it remains joined to violence or crooked desire.
When you spread your palms, I will shut my eyes to you. Even when you multiply your prayers, I will not hear and respond. Your hands are filled with blood.If I see crookedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear and respond.You ask, and do not take, because you ask badly, so that you may use it up upon your pleasures.THE THREAD
Son of man, these men have lifted up their idols upon their heart, and set the stumbling block of their crookedness before their face. Should I be sought at all by them?The Hebrew phrase translated should I be enquired of uses the same root, דרש (darash), as the question in Ezekiel 20:31. In both verses, the idols are already present when the people turn to inquire, so the question exposes what their approach contains.
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