Therefore say, Repent Be truly sorry for your past sins, and give proof of your sorrow by forsaking them, &c.; and turn from your idols Separate yourselves from them, that they may not finally and eternally separate you from God. And turn away your faces Your heart and ways; from all your abominations Not only from all your idolatries, but from all sinful practices. Turn your faces from them, abhor the very sight of them; not only forsake them, but do it with loathing and detestation. For every one of the house of Israel Every Jew of the seed of Abraham, whom this warning first and principally concerns; or of the stranger that sojourneth, &c. Every proselyte: or the expression may include the foreigners who lived in Judea, termed, in the fourth commandment, the stranger within their gates. For these, although they were neither circumcised nor subject to the ceremonial laws, yet were under an obligation to refrain from idolatry, or from worshipping any God but Jehovah. Which separateth himself from me Who leaves me to worship idols. God considered them as separating themselves from him, not only if they wholly left off to worship him, but also if they worshipped as gods any other beings, real or imaginary, along with him. For he, being the only true God, could not, of course, admit of any other to be worshipped together with him, as no other being whatsoever had the least pretence to be worshipped as God. I the Lord will answer him by myself I who am Jehovah, the only Creator, Preserver, and Lord of all things, will answer him according to my own inherent power, not by words, but by executing my judgments upon him. And he shall find by the answer, that it was not the prophet, but God that answered, so dreadful, searching, and astonishing shall my answer be. And I will set my face against that man
I will make him a mark for my indignation; and will make him a sign and a proverb A signal and remarkable instance of my vengeance; and will cut him off, &c. By sudden death, attended with extraordinary circumstances.