Ezekiel 20:16

16 For they had rejected my regulations, refused to follow my decrees, and violated my Sabbath days. Their hearts were given to 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 again I held back in order to protect the honor of my name before the nations who had seen my power in bringing Israel out of Egypt.

15 But I took a solemn oath against them in the wilderness. I swore I would not bring them into the land I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful place on earth.

16 For they had rejected my regulations, refused to follow my decrees, and violated my Sabbath days. Their hearts were given to their idols.

17 Nevertheless, I took pity on them and held back from destroying them in the wilderness.

18 “Then I warned their children not to follow in their parents’ footsteps, defiling themselves with their idols.