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and say to them:

“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On the day I chose Israel I swore[a] to the descendants[b] of the house of Jacob and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt. I swore[c] to them, “I am the Lord your God.” On that day I swore[d] to bring them out of the land of Egypt to a land that I had picked out[e] for them, a land flowing with milk and honey,[f] the most beautiful of all lands. I said to them, “Each of you must get rid of the detestable idols you keep before you,[g] and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.”

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 20:5 tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”
  2. Ezekiel 20:5 tn Heb “seed.”
  3. Ezekiel 20:5 tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”
  4. Ezekiel 20:6 tn Heb “I lifted up my hand to them.”
  5. Ezekiel 20:6 tn Or “searched out.” The Hebrew word is used to describe the activity of the spies in “spying out” the land of Canaan (Num 13-14); cf. KJV “I had espied for them.”
  6. Ezekiel 20:6 sn The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey,” a figure of speech describing the land’s abundant fertility, occurs in v. 15 as well as Exod 3:8, 17; 13:5; 33:3; Lev 20:24; Num 13:27; Deut 6:3; 11:9; 26:9; 27:3; Josh 5:6; Jer 11:5; 32:23 (see also Deut 1:25; 8:7-9).
  7. Ezekiel 20:7 tn Heb “each one, the detestable things of his eyes, throw away.” The Pentateuch does not refer to the Israelites worshiping idols in Egypt, but Josh 24:14 appears to suggest that they did so.