What Does Ezekiel 20:7 Mean?
Then I said to them, Throw away, each one, the sickening things of his eyes, and do not make yourselves unclean with the idols of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.THE KEY
Because the Hebrew word for “eye” also names a spring, the verse makes the gaze sound like a source, and commands what pollutes it to be cast away.
THE MEANING
What remains in your sight can become more than something you notice; it can draw your allegiance and stain the self. The verse names a clean break, cast it away, and grounds that demand in the present claim, “I am the LORD your God.”
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that an object stays harmless because it is only something you look at. The verse links the gaze with defilement and allegiance.
THE ROOT
הַשְׁלִיכוּ
hashlikhu
GROWS FROM
שָׁלַךְ
shalakh
To throw, cast, or hurl.
“throw away” in this verse is hashlikhu. The same verb describes casting the detestable things away here and casting a burden upon the LORD in Psalm 55:22. Its force is directional: what pollutes the sight is thrown away.
ALSO GROWS
hashlekh: Cast
הַשְׁלֵךְ
Psalm 55:22 uses this form to cast a burden upon the LORD, showing how the verb’s force depends on where the thing is cast.
vayyashlekh: And he cast down
וַיַּשְׁלֵךְ
This form keeps the root’s physical force visible: the command is to throw something away.
עֵינָיו
ʿênāyw
GROWS FROM
עַיִן
ʿayin
The noun means “eye” and is also used for a “spring” or “fountain.”
The same Hebrew noun names both an eye and a spring. In “the abominations of his eyes,” that overlap gives the gaze a source-like resonance: what a person keeps in view can feed the inner life, while the phrase still directly refers to what each person sees.
ALSO GROWS
ʿênāyw: His eyes
עֵינָיו
This is the passage’s form: the command addresses the group, while the gaze belongs to each person.
ʿên: Spring, fountain
עֵין
Genesis 16:7 uses this noun for a fountain, opening the echo between the eye and a source.
THE PATTERN
What the eyes hold before a person can shape the allegiance and condition of the whole self.
I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. I hate the deed of those who turn aside; it shall not cling to me.The lamp of the body is the eye. So if your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light.Little children, guard yourselves from idols. Amen.THE THREAD
Throw your load upon the LORD, and he holds you. He does not give the aligned one to totter for the ages.Psalm 55:22 uses the same root, שׁלך (shalakh, “cast”): there, a burden is cast upon the LORD; here, the detestable thing is cast away. Together, the verses make casting a choice of direction: a burden goes to the LORD, while what defiles is thrown out of the gaze.
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