What Does Ezekiel 16:20 Mean in the King James?
Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse exposes a brutal transfer: what is borne to God is slaughtered for rival powers and made their food.
THE MEANING
The verse puts a brutal charge before you: children borne to God are taken, sacrificed to other powers, and given to be eaten. Its closing question refuses to call that violence a small matter; the act exposes how far divided allegiance can turn what is entrusted into what gets consumed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
That this violence is only a minor extension of unfaithfulness, the verse directly rejects that minimization.
THE ROOT
זָבַח
zābaḥ
GROWS FROM
זבח
to slaughter an offering; to sacrifice
“sacrificed” in this verse is zābaḥ. The Hebrew root joins sacrifice to slaughter: the children are not merely dedicated but killed and made food for the powers receiving them. The verse makes the violence inside the act impossible to miss.
ALSO GROWS
zebaḥ: a sacrifice or slaughtered offering
זֶבַח
It names the offering made from the children in the verse.
mizbēaḥ: an altar, the place of sacrifice
מִזְבֵּחַ
It carries the same root into the structure where an offering is presented.
לֶאֱכֹל
leʾĕkhol
GROWS FROM
אכל
to eat
“to be devoured” in this verse is leʾĕkhol. The phrase literally presents the children as food to be eaten. That closes the verse’s brutal circuit: they are first made offerings, then treated as nourishment for the powers receiving them.
ALSO GROWS
ʾăkhīlāh: eating
אֲכִילָה
It names the act expressed by “to be devoured.”
maʾakhāl: food
מַאֲכָל
It makes explicit the children’s horrifying role as what the offering is meant to supply.
יָלַדְתְּ
yāladt
GROWS FROM
ילד
to bear, beget, or give birth
The same root gives both the act of bearing and the word for a child. The verse sharply marks the transfer: these children are borne “unto me” before they are handed over to others.
ALSO GROWS
yeled: a child
יֶלֶד
It names the one brought forth by the act of bearing.
tōledōt: generations, descendants
תּוֹלְדוֹת
It extends the birth-root from one child to the generations that follow.
THE PATTERN
When worship transfers what belongs in relationship with God to rival powers, devotion becomes an instrument of destruction.
Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.THE THREAD
Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils,The Hebrew verb translated “sacrificed” here shares the זבח (zābaḥ, to sacrifice) root with Ezekiel’s charge. Psalm 106 names the recipients as devils, making explicit who the children are sacrificed to.
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