18. “Then I said to their children in the wilderness: Don’t follow the statutes of your fathers, defile yourselves with their idols, or keep their ordinances.
19. I am Yahweh your God. Follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them.
20. Keep My Sabbaths holy, and they will be a sign between Me and you, so you may know that I am Yahweh your God.
21. “But the children rebelled against Me. They did not follow My statutes or carefully keep My ordinances — the person who does them will live by them. They also profaned My Sabbaths. So I considered pouring out My wrath on them and exhausting My anger against them in the wilderness.
22. But I withheld My hand and acted because of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I brought them out.
23. However, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would disperse them among the nations and scatter them among the countries.
24. For they did not practice My ordinances but rejected My statutes and profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on their fathers’ idols.
25. I also gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances they could not live by.
26. When they made every firstborn pass through the fire, I defiled them through their gifts in order to devastate them so they would know that I am Yahweh.
27. “Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, and tell them: This is what the Lord God says: In this way also your fathers blasphemed Me by committing treachery against Me:
28. When I brought them into the land that I swore to give them and they saw any high hill or leafy tree, they offered their sacrifices and presented their offensive offerings there. They also sent up their pleasing aromas and poured out their drink offerings there.