²⁰ “Then you took your sons and daughters—the children you had borne to me—and sacrificed them to your gods. Was your prostitution not enough?

³⁷ They have committed both adultery and murder—adultery by worshiping idols and murder by burning as sacrifices the children they bore to me.

³¹ For when you offer gifts to them and give your little children to be burned as sacrifices,^[a] 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.

³¹ They have built pagan shrines at Topheth, the garbage dump in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and there they burn their sons and daughters in the fire. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing!

² “Dedicate to me every firstborn among the Israelites. The first offspring to be born, of both humans and animals, belongs to me.”

²⁶ I let them pollute themselves^[a] with the very gifts I had given them, and I allowed them to give their firstborn children as offerings to their gods—so I might devastate them and remind them that I alone am the Lord.

²¹ Must you also slaughter my children by sacrificing them to idols?

¹¹ Your little ones and your wives are with you, as well as the foreigners living among you who chop your wood and carry your water. ¹² You are standing here today to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God. The Lord is making this covenant, including the curses.