When I lifted up mine hand— Lifting up the hand, was a ceremony used in taking an oath: the meaning here is, "When I entered into a solemn covenant with them, pursuant to the oath I had sworn to their fathers." But Houbigant is of opinion, that lifting up the hand, in this place, means the giving them help and deliverance. See his note. The 15th and 23rd verses, however, seem to confirm the first explication. Among the Jews, the juror held up his right hand towards heaven; which explains a passage in the 144th Psalm, Ezekiel 20:8 whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. The same form is retained in some parts of Scotland still. See Paley on Moral and Political Philosophy, p. 159. 4to. This manner of taking an oath is allowed by law to a certain description of protestant dissenters in Ireland called Seceders. 21 & 22 Geo. 3. c. lvii.
Related Commentaries of Ezekiel 20:5
Ezekiel 20:5
5 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifteda up mine hand unto them, saying, I am the LORD your God;