Ezekiel 20:16

16 because they despised my judgments, and {they did not walk in my statutes}, and my Sabbaths they profaned, for their heart was going after their idols.

Ezekiel 20:16 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 20:16

Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my
statutes, but polluted my sabbaths
Which were just causes of divine resentment and anger; (See Gill on Ezekiel 20:13); for their heart went after their idols;
which they had served in Egypt; and that led them off from the true worship and service of God; no man can serve two masters; if he holds to the one, and his heart is towards him, he will despise the other; and yet these idols were no other, as the word signifies, than dunghill gods, as in ( Ezekiel 20:16 ) ; and such are all worldly things, in comparison of God, that the heart of man is going after.

Ezekiel 20:16 In-Context

14 and I acted for the sake of my name, [that it] not be profaned before the eyes of the nations {before whom I brought them out}.

15 And also {I myself swore} to them in the desert not to bring them into the land that I had given [to them], flowing with milk and honey--it [is the most] beautiful of all of the lands--

16 because they despised my judgments, and {they did not walk in my statutes}, and my Sabbaths they profaned, for their heart was going after their idols.

17 But my eye took pity on them by not destroying them, and {I did not completely destroy them} in the desert.

18 "And I said to their children in the desert, 'You must not go in the statutes of your parents; you must not keep their regulations, and you must not make yourself unclean with their idols.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "and my statutes not they went in them"