Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.
Parallel translations
- WEB because they rejected my ordinances, and didn’t walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.
- BSB because they kept rejecting My ordinances, refusing to walk in My statutes, and profaning My Sabbaths; for their hearts continually went after their idols.
- NKJV because they despised My judgments and did not walk in My statutes, but profaned My Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.
- NASB because they rejected My ordinances, and as for My statutes, they did not walk in them; they also profaned My Sabbaths, because their heart continually followed their idols.
- NLT For they had rejected my regulations, refused to follow my decrees, and violated my Sabbath days. Their hearts were given to their idols.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They were excluded because they rejected God's ordinances, broke His Sabbaths, and followed idols in their hearts. Their idolatry was the root of their rebellion.
Overview
God exposes the heart-level cause of their disobedience: their affections were set on idols rather than on Him. Outward law-breaking flowed from inward devotion to false gods. This diagnosis shows that true obedience requires a heart turned to the Lord, a change God promises to work through the new covenant in Christ (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Num 15:39And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring:
- Ezek 20:8But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man 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.
- Ezek 14:3–4Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
- Ezek 23:8Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.
- Amos 5:25–26Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
- Exod 32:1–8And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
- Acts 7:39–43To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
- Num 25:2And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.
- Ezek 20:13–14But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 20:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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