Ezekiel 20:7

7 then said I unto them, Cast away each one of you all worship of god fabricated by carnal appearance and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Ezekiel 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.

Ezekiel 20:7 In-Context

5 And say unto them, Thus hath the Lord GOD said; In the day when I chose Israel and lifted up my hand for the seed of the house of Jacob and made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt when I lifted up my hand unto them, saying, I am the LORD your God;

6 in the day that I lifted up my hand unto them with an oath that I would bring them forth from the land of Egypt into a land that I had prepared for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the most beautiful of all lands,

7 then said I unto them, Cast away each one of you all worship of god fabricated by carnal appearance and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

8 But they rebelled against me and did not desire to hearken unto me; each one did not cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt; then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.

9 With all this, I intervened for my name’s sake that it should not be polluted before the Gentiles, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.