Ezekiel 20:26

and I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, thereby consecrating their first-born children to Molech, the abomination of the Moabites, instead of offering them to Jehovah according to the manlier prescribed by Him, Exodus 13:12, that I might make them desolate, visiting their obstinacy upon them in just this way, by letting the loathsome and revolting custom continue, since He had so emphatically forbidden it, Leviticus 18:21; Deuteronomy 18:10, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord. It was God's judgment upon the stubborn Jews that He permitted them to be dominated by the spirit of idolatry to such an extent that they were helpless in its power. At the same time His intention was, if possible, so to shock the Jews by the reflection of their loathsome customs that they might feel the unnaturalness of their conduct and turn to the Lord in true repentance.