ישעיהו, פרק נ״ז, פסוק ה׳

The prophets often compare the abandonment of the righteous path for idolatry to a wife's infidelity against her husband. This creates a harsh picture of spiritual and moral betrayal, one that begins with uncontrollable passion and ends in horrific cruelty. The intense drive toward false worship is likened to the heat and lust of prostitution. The primary approach among commentators is that these gatherings took place among specific trees, such as the terebinth or other barren trees. However, another view suggests the passion was directed at the idols or higher powers themselves [שד״ל, מלבי״ם]. According to this perspective, the sinners burned with a desire to bear children from these false gods, driven by a superstitious belief that the idols lusted after human women [מלבי״ם]. These public acts of worship occurred widely and openly under moist, leafy trees [רד״ק, מצודת ציון, שטיינזלץ].

This idolatrous passion ultimately leads to the terrible act of slaughtering children. The primary approach among commentators explains this literally as sacrificing children to false gods. Some emphasize that this involved actual slaughter to shed blood for demons to drink, rather than burning the children in fire [שד״ל]. Others compare the act to a prostitute who murders her own offspring [אבן עזרא]. A different interpretation places the blame directly on the idols, describing them as the slaughterers because they are the ones who commanded the killing [מלבי״ם]. Additionally, an approach based on the teachings of the sages reads the act metaphorically as a reference to wasting seed, a sin equated with spilling blood [מנחת שי, אבן עזרא].

These ritual murders took place in deep valleys beneath the clefts of rocks. The rocky clefts are described using imagery borrowed from the plant world, likening stone protrusions to branches extending from a tree [רד״ק, מצודת ציון, שטיינזלץ, רש״י]. The sinners would place their idols high up on these protruding rocks and slaughter their children in the deep valleys directly below them [מצודת דוד, שד״ל].