The First Commandment speaks to the exclusive relationship between God and His people: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3).
Eventually, once they reached Mount Sinai on their journey from Egypt to the Land of Promise, they would receive the Ten Commandments in codified form, two of which relate to other gods. The defining of Egypt’s gods and goddesses as idols meant that Israel would stand out against all other nations in respect of whom they would worship. Because of this contrast, during the prelude to the Exodus their enslaved descendants in Egypt witnessed the power of the one true God over any other. The Hebrew forefathers of the children of Israel, on the other hand, knew only one God.
The Egyptians worshiped thousands of gods, though only about 1,500 are known by name.
