15. Yet also I lifted up My hand to swear to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the ornament and glory of all lands–
16. Because they despised and rejected My ordinances and walked not in My statutes and profaned My Sabbaths, for their hearts went after their idols.
17. Yet My eye pitied them instead of destroying them, and I did not make a full end of them in the wilderness.
18. But I said to their sons in the wilderness, You shall not walk in the statutes of your fathers nor observe their ordinances nor defile yourselves with their idols.
19. I the Lord am your God; walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances,
20. And hallow (separate and keep holy) My Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord your God.
21. Yet the sons rebelled against Me; they walked not in My statutes, neither kept My ordinances which, if a man does, he must live in and by them; they profaned My Sabbaths. Then I thought I would pour out My wrath on them and finish My anger against them in the wilderness.
22. Yet I withheld My hand and acted for My name's sake, that it should not be debased and profaned in the sight of the [heathen] nations, in whose sight I had brought them forth [from bondage].
23. Moreover, I lifted up My hand and swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the [heathen] nations and disperse them in the countries,
24. Because they had not executed My ordinances but had despised and rejected My statutes and had profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were set on their fathers' idols.
25. Wherefore also I gave them [over to] statutes that were not good and ordinances whereby they should not live and could not have life, [Ps. 81:12; Isa. 66:4; Rom. 1:21-25, 28.]
26. And I [let them] pollute and make themselves unclean in their own offerings [to their idols], in that they caused to pass through the fire all the firstborn, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord. [Lev. 20:2-5.]
27. Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Again in this your fathers blasphemed Me, in that they dealt faithlessly and treacherously with Me and committed a treasonous trespass against Me.
28. For when I had brought them into the land which I lifted up My hand and swore to give to them, then they saw every high hill and every dark and leafy tree [as a place for idol worship], and they offered there their sacrifices and there they presented their offering that provoked My anger and sadness; there also they made their sweet-smelling savor and poured out there their drink offerings.
29. Then I said to them, What is the high place to which you go? And the name of it is called Bamah [high place] to this day.
30. Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Do you [exiles] debase and defile yourselves after the manner of your fathers? And do you play the harlot after their loathsome and detestable things?
31. And when you offer your gifts, when you make your sons pass through the fire, do you not debase and defile yourselves with all your idols to this day? And shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you!
32. And that which has come up in your mind shall never happen, in that you think, We will be as the nations, as the tribes of the countries, to serve idols of wood and stone.
33. As I live, says the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out will I be King over you.
34. And I will bring you out from the peoples and will gather you out of the countries in which you are scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out.