Ezekiel 16:19Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

However, the unfortunate Jerusalem placed before idols and human images this delightful offering, creating a fragrant aroma that is by nature sweet and pleasing, but when presented to false gods and misguided beliefs, it becomes bitter.

Then it was said, declares the Lord God, that you took your sons and daughters, whom you bore for me, and you sacrificed them for your own consumption. Was your unfaithfulness not sufficient that you also slaughtered My children? You dedicated them, offering them up. After all the abominations and acts of infidelity, you did not recall the days of your youth, when you were bare and filled with disgrace, trampled in your blood. The Lord stated, after all these things, that you took your sons and daughters whom you had given birth to and slaughtered them for destruction, all the while treating your unfaithfulness lightly. In doing so, you sacrificed My sons, offering them to idols. This act exceeds your infidelity and abominations, and you failed to remember the time of your youth when you were naked and publicly shamed, amidst your blood. Jerusalem sacrificed her sons and daughters to idols, as it is written, "I have brought up children and made them great, but they have rebelled against me" (Isaiah 1:2). The Scripture declares, "They burned their sons and their daughters in the fire" (Psalm 105:37) and again, "They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters whom they offered to the images of Canaan" (ibid., Psalms 105:38). He refers to them as His own, for He had said of them, "My firstborn son is Israel" (Exodus 4:22).

In the place where we see "and gave them," meaning dedicated them, the Septuagint translates it as "and gave them for atonement," while Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion offer "carried them away," for the gentiles would either pass their young children through fire or lead them through it when older. By doing this, you forgot your youth when I took you, covered in blood, and washed you, and through prophetic guidance united you to myself. Regarding our own Jerusalem, if it falls prey to heretical deceit, it offers its spiritually stronger sons and weaker daughters or knowledgeable sons and simpler daughters to demons, believing that by killing them it grants them life and appeases the idols, who find satisfaction in such sacrifices. What is stated about the severity of your fornication and abominations indicates that the doctrine of demons is far worse than all sins and infidelities, as it will destroy those who have either struggled to be born of God or those who have become His children through sinful means.