15. And so I lifted up my hand over them in the desert, so as not to lead them into the land that I had given to them, flowing with milk and honey, the foremost of all lands.
16. For they cast aside my judgments, and they did not walk in my precepts, and they violated my Sabbaths. For their heart went after idols.
17. Yet my eye was lenient concerning them, so that I did not utterly destroy them, nor did I consume them in the desert.
18. Then I said to their sons in the wilderness: 'Do not choose to advance by the precepts of your fathers, nor should you observe their judgments. And do not be defiled by their idols.
19. I am the Lord your God. Walk in my precepts, and observe my judgments, and accomplish them.
20. And sanctify my Sabbaths, so that these may be a sign between me and you, and so that you may know that I am the Lord your God.'
21. But their sons provoked me. They did not walk in my precepts. And they did not observe my judgments, so as to do them; for if a man does them, he shall live by them. And they violated my Sabbaths. And so, I threatened that I would pour out my fury upon them, and that I would fulfill my wrath among them in the desert.
22. But I turned aside my hand, and I acted for the sake of my name, so that it would not be violated before the Gentiles, from whom I cast them out, before their eyes.
23. Again, I lifted up my hand against them, in the wilderness, so that I would disperse them among the nations, and scatter them among the lands.
24. For they had not accomplished my judgments, and they had rejected my precepts, and they had violated my Sabbaths. And their eyes had been after the idols of their fathers.
25. Therefore, I also gave them precepts that were not good, and judgments by which they shall not live.
26. And I defiled them by their own gifts, when they offered everything that opened the womb, because of their offenses. And they shall know that I am the Lord.
27. For this reason, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God. Yet also in this did your fathers blaspheme me, after they had spurned and despised me,