Ezekiel 20:16

16 because they rejected my ordinances and did not walk in my statutes, and profaned my sabbaths; for their heart went 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 But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out.
15 Moreover I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands,
16 because they rejected my ordinances and did not walk in my statutes, and profaned my sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.
17 Nevertheless my eye spared them, and I did not destroy them or make a full end of them in the wilderness.
18 "And I said to their children in the wilderness, Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor observe their ordinances, nor defile yourselves with their idols.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.