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Unto devils; so they did, not directly or intentionally, but by construction and consequence, because the devil is the author of idolatry, and is eminently served, pleased, and honoured by it. And as the Egyptians were notorious for their idolatry, as appears by the testimony of Scripture, and of all ancient writers, so the Israelites were infected with their leaven, Jos_24:14 Eze_20:7 23:2,3. And the name of devils is commonly given in Scripture to idols, yea, even to those which seemed most innocent, as to Jeroboam’s calves, 2Ch_11:15, by which he and the people designed and professed to worship the true God, as is manifest from the nature of the thing, and from many places of Scripture; and the worshippers of idols are esteemed and called worshippers of devils. See Deu_32:17 Psa_106:37 1Co_10:20 Rev_9:20. The Hebrew word rendered devils signifies goats, either because goats were eminently worshipped by the Egyptians, as Herodotus, Strabo, and others note, and divers of the idols of the heathens were of that or a like form; or because the devil did oft appear to the heathens in that shape, as their own authors note.
After whom they have gone a whoring; for idolatry, especially in God’s people, is commonly called whoredom, as Eze_16:16,26 23:8,19,21, &c., and that justly, because it is a violation of that covenant by which they were peculiarly betrothed or married to God. See Hos_2:18-20.