Ezekiel 16:19

Eze 16:19 My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, [wherewith] I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and [thus] it was, saith the Lord GOD.

Ver. 19. My meat also … thou hast even set it before them.] Either as consecrated to them, or otherwise to be consecrated by them, which made Daniel so scrupulous of meddling with the king’s meat. {Eze 1:8}

Thus it was.] Just so, and no otherwise, however thou would palliate the business, and art ready to put me to my proofs. {as Jer 2:35}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

My meat . . . I gave-- (Hos 2:8).

set it before them--as a minchah or "meat offering" (Lev 2:1).

a sweet savour--literally "a savor of rest," that is, whereby they might be propitiated, and be at peace ("rest") with you; how ridiculous to seek to propitiate gods of wood!

thus it was--The fact cannot be denied, for I saw it, and say it was so, saith Jehovah.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

19. a sweet savour] See on ch. Eze_6:13. The words “and thus it was” emphasize what was done, with a tone of reprobation.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters,.... Their own flesh and blood; which were more than to take their clothes, and cover their idols with them, and their food, and set it before them to part with them was much, but to part with these, and that in such a shocking manner as after mentioned, was so irrational and unnatural, as well as impious and wicked, as is not to be paralleled; and what increased their wickedness was, that these were not only their own, but the Lord's:

whom thou hast borne unto me; for, though they were born of them, they were born unto the Lord, the Creator of them, the Father of their spirits, and God of their lives, and who had the sole right to dispose of them; nor was it in the power of their parents to take away their life at pleasure; for the Lord only has the sovereign power of life and death:

and these hast thou sacrificed unto them: the male images before mentioned; one of which was Molech, who is here particularly designed:

to be devoured; in the arms of that image; or to be consumed by fire, in which they were burnt, when sacrificed unto it. The Targum is,

"for oblation and worship;''

is this of thy whoredoms a small matter; which was so dreadfully heinous and inhuman, yet by some reckoned a small matter; this was not the least of their idolatries, but, of all, the most shocking, and the most aggravated: or the sense is, is it a small thing that thou shouldest play the harlot, or worship idols? is it not enough for thee to do so, but thou must sacrifice thy children also to them? and which are not only thine, but mine, as follows:

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Allusion is here made to some rite like the Roman “Lectisternia,” in which public tables were set forth for feasts in honor of idols.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

My meat also; the bread, all that was necessary and proper for thy sustentation in general, which I gave thee, thou hast fed thy paramours withal.

Fine flour, & c: here are particularly recounted the things God gave, and this adulteress misemployed, both literally and mystically; for I doubt not the Jews were lavish of the fruits of the Divine bounty, bestowing them both on adulterers and on idols.

For a sweet savour; to reconcile the idol, or to prolong the favour of the idol, or to give a pleasing entertainment to their adulterers, or to provide for the idolatrous priests and their families, which could spend all this, though the idol knew not of it.

Thus it was; all which is self-evident, plain, and needs no proof; it is undeniable.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19. Meat — Literally, food, or bread (Lev_21:6). Even the sacred sacrificial food had been used for idolatrous purposes.

Honey — This may have been a heathen offering; it was not used in the later Israelitish ritual (Lev_2:11). — Polychrome Bible.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For a sweet savour - To gain the favour of the idol. Thus it was - All which is undeniable.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

And My bread that I gave you The day they made the Calf, the manna descended for them and they placed some of it before the Calf. Nonetheless, ‘so it was’ on the morrow, and it did not cease. Even this is delineated in the Book of Ezra (Neh. 9:18ff.): “Even when they made for themselves a molten calf, etc. And You, with Your manifold mercies, did not forsake them, etc., and You did not withhold Your manna from their mouth.” It was fitting to withhold it from them, yet You did not withhold it. [Scripture writes] here, too, “so it was, says the Lord God” the bread was, and it did not stop falling on the next day. So did Rabbi Tanchuma expound on it (Buber, Re’eh 13a).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.