Ezekiel 20:16

16 because they had rejected my rulings, did not live by my laws and profaned my shabbats; since their hearts 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 concern for my own reputation kept me from letting it be profaned in the sight of the nations who had seen when I brought them out.

15 Yet I also raised my hand and swore to them in the desert that I would not bring them into the land I was giving them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands;

16 because they had rejected my rulings, did not live by my laws and profaned my shabbats; since their hearts went after their idols.

17 However, I spared them from complete destruction; I did not completely finish them off in the desert.

18 "'I said to their children in the desert, "Don't live by the laws of your fathers, observe their rulings or defile yourselves with their idols.