16. because they rejected my rules and did not walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.
17. Nevertheless, my eye spared them, and I did not destroy them or make a full end of them in the wilderness.
18. “And I said to their children in the wilderness, Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, nor defile yourselves with their idols.
19. I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules,
20. and keep my Sabbaths holy that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.
21. But the children rebelled against me. They did not walk in my statutes and were not careful to obey my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; they profaned my Sabbaths. “Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness.
22. But I withheld my hand and acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out.
23. Moreover, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries,