And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me: Although the parable still gains much of its meaning from the history of the people of Judah worshiping false gods, here it focuses again on the girl and God by referring to the children who were born from their marriage (see Ezek 16.8). In some languages your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me may be rendered “the sons and daughters you had by me” or “your sons and daughters that I fathered.” New Century Version has “your sons and daughters who were my children.”

And these you sacrificed to them to be devoured: The girl sacrificed these children to the idols of the false gods. This clause pictures the practice of child sacrifice to the Canaanite gods, in which babies were killed to ensure that the gods would continue to be favorable to the people and the land. The Hebrew verb rendered sacrificed often refers to killing something that was alive (for example, an animal or bird) and giving it to God. Sometimes it also involved burning the gift so that the smoke rose to God in heaven. The verb devoured shows the belief that the gods ate the babies like food. New International Version renders this whole clause as “and sacrificed them as food to the idols” (similarly New Jerusalem Bible). This clause and the previous one may be translated “You took your sons and daughters whom I fathered, and you sacrificed them to be food for the idols.”

Were your harlotries so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?: This is a rhetorical question to show that God’s message has reached a climax. After listing a few of Judah’s sins, namely, using his gifts to worship idols, God now mentions the worst sin of all, sacrificing children to the false gods. He compares two sins of the girl (her prostitution and her sacrifice of her children) by asking if the sacrifice of her children was a smaller thing, that is, less important, than her sexual misdeeds. Translators may not find it easy to translate this rhetorical question, and it may be wise to change it into a statement, for example, “You did something even worse than your prostitution—you sacrificed my own children as an offering to the idols!” (similarly Contemporary English Version). New English Bible has “Was this of less account than your fornication? No! you slaughtered my children and handed them over, you surrendered them to your images.” For harlotries see verse 15. You slaughtered my children refers to killing God’s children as a sacrifice, and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them refers to burning the sacrifice to the idols. Good News Translation combines these two clauses, saying “sacrificing them to idols.” Contemporary English Version keeps both clauses by saying “You slaughtered my children, so you could offer them as sacrifices.”

A model for verses 20-21 is:

• 20 You sacrificed your sons and daughters who were my children to be food for the idols. It was bad enough that you acted like a prostitute [or, were unfaithful to me]. 21 But you also did something worse when you killed my children and burned them as an offering to the idols.

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .