Yechezkel 20:7

7 Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every ish the shikkutzim before his eynayim, and make not yourselves tameh with the gillulim (idols) of Mitzrayim; I am Hashem Eloheichem.

Yechezkel 20:7 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 20:7

Then I said unto them
Having promised and swore to do such great and good things for them; which must lay them under an obligation to regard what he should command them: promises and blessings of goodness are great incentives to duty, and lay under great obligation to it: cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes;
which should be so, meaning idols; but which his eyes were taken with, and were lifted up unto, as his gods; though they ought to have been rejected with the utmost abhorrence, as abominable: and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt;
their "dunghill gods", as the word ^F6 signifies; which to worship, as it was an abomination to God, was defiling to themselves; yet these they were fond of, and prone to worship them; their eyes and their hearts were after them; and they needed such cautions and instructions as these, backed with the following strong reason against such idolatry: I [am] the Lord your God;
their Creator and Benefactor, their covenant God; the only Lord God, and whom only they ought to serve and worship; to whom they were under ten thousand obligations; and who was infinitely above all the idols of Egypt.

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 (ylwlgb) "stercoreis diis", Junius & Tremellius, Polanus; "stercoribus", Piscator, Cocceius.

Yechezkel 20:7 In-Context

5 And say unto them, Thus saith Adonoi Hashem: In the day when I chose Yisroel, and lifted up Mine yad [i.e., took a shevua] unto the zera Bais Ya’akov, and made Myself known unto them in Eretz Mitzrayim, when I lifted up Mine yad unto them, saying, I am Hashem Eloheichem;

6 In the day that I lifted up Mine yad unto them, to bring them forth from Eretz Mitzrayim into a land that I had searched out for them, zavat cholov udevash, which is the most beautiful of all lands;

7 Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every ish the shikkutzim before his eynayim, and make not yourselves tameh with the gillulim (idols) of Mitzrayim; I am Hashem Eloheichem.

8 But they rebelled against Me, and would not pay heed unto Me; they did not every ish cast away the shikkutzim from before their eynayim, neither did they forsake the gillulim (idols) of Mitzrayim; then I said, I will pour out My chemah (wrath) upon them, to vent My anger against them in the midst of Eretz Mitzrayim.

9 But I acted for My Name’s sake, that it should not be profaned before the eyes of the Goyim, among whom they were living. In bringing them forth out of Eretz Mitzrayim, in their sight I made Myself [publicly] known unto them.