When you offer your gifts, sacrificing your sons in the fire, you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. So should I be consulted by you, O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will not be consulted by you!
Parallel translations
- WEB When you offer your gifts, when you make your sons to pass through the fire, do you pollute yourselves with all your idols to this day? Shall I be inquired of by you, house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will not be inquired of by you!
- KJV 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.
- NKJV For when you offer your gifts and make your sons pass through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols, even to this day. So shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live,” says the Lord God, “I will not be inquired of by you.
- NASB And when you offer your gifts, when you make your sons pass through the fire, you are defiling yourselves with all your idols to this day. So shall I be inquired of by you, house of Israel? As I live,” declares the Lord God, “I certainly will not be inquired of by you.
- NLT For when you offer gifts to them and give your little children to be burned as sacrifices, you continue to pollute yourselves with idols to this day. Should I allow you to ask for a message from me, O people of Israel? As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I will tell you nothing.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Because they still defile themselves with idols, even child sacrifice, God again refuses to be inquired of by them. Their unrepentant idolatry forfeits any word of guidance.
Overview
The Lord returns to the elders' original request (verse 3) and denies it on account of their ongoing abominations. Persisting in the very sins of their fathers, they cannot expect God to answer them as if all were well. The verse reaffirms that genuine seeking of God is incompatible with clinging to idols, and it calls for repentance.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Ezek 20:26And I pronounced them unclean through their gifts—the sacrifice of every firstborn in the fire—so that I might devastate them, in order that they would know that I am the LORD.
- Jer 7:31They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom so they could burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I never commanded, nor did it even enter My mind.
- Ps 106:37–39They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.
- Prov 28:9Whoever turns his ear away from hearing the law, even his prayer is detestable.
- Ezek 16:20You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols. Was your prostitution not enough?
- Ezek 20:3“Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: Have you come to inquire of Me? As surely as I live, I will not be consulted by you, declares the Lord GOD.
- Deut 18:10–12Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery,
- Prov 1:27–28when your dread comes like a storm, and your destruction like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish overwhelm you.
- Jas 4:1–3What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?
- Job 27:10Will he delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?
- 2 Kgs 3:13–14Elisha, however, said to the king of Israel, “What have we to do with each other? Go to the prophets of your father and of your mother!” “No,” replied the king of Israel, “for it is the LORD who has summoned these three kings to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”
- 1 Sam 28:5–6When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid and trembled violently.
- Ezek 14:3–4“Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I consult with them in any way?
- Matt 25:11–12Later the other virgins arrived and said, ‘Lord, lord, open the door for us!’
- Isa 1:15When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.
- Job 27:8For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
- Jer 14:12Although they may fast, I will not listen to their cry; although they may offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will finish them off by sword and famine and plague.”
- Ps 66:18If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
- Jer 19:5They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I never commanded or mentioned, nor did it even enter My mind.
- Zech 7:13And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts.
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 20:31 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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