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.
29. So I asked them: What is this high place you are going to? And it is called High Place to this day.
30. “Therefore say to the house of Israel: This is what the Lord God says: Are you defiling yourselves the way your fathers did, and prostituting yourselves with their detestable things?
31. When you offer your gifts, making your children pass through the fire, you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. So should I be consulted by you, house of Israel? As I live” — this is the declaration of the Lord God — “I will not be consulted by you!
32. “When you say, ‘Let us be like the nations, like the peoples of other countries, worshiping wood and stone,’ what you have in mind will never happen.
33. As I live” — the declaration of the Lord God — “I will rule over you with a strong hand, an outstretched arm, and outpoured wrath.
34. I will bring you from the peoples and gather you from the countries where you were scattered, with a strong hand, an outstretched arm, and outpoured wrath.
35. I will lead you into the wilderness of the peoples and enter into judgment with you there face to face.