15. And also I myself swore to them in the desert not to bring them into the land that I had given to them, flowing with milk and honey—it is the most beautiful of all of the lands—
16. because they despised my judgments, and they did not walk in my statutes, and my Sabbaths they profaned, for their heart was going after their idols.
17. But my eye took pity on them by not destroying them, and I did not completely destroy them in the desert.
18. “And I said to their children in the desert, ‘You must not go in the statutes of your parents; you must not keep their regulations, and you must not make yourself unclean with their idols.
19. I, Yahweh, am your God, so go in my statutes and keep my regulations and do them.
20. And treat my Sabbaths as holy, and they will be a sign between me and between you that you may know that I, Yahweh, am your God.’
21. But the children rebelled against me; they did not walk in my statutes, and they did not observe my regulations, which if a person does them, then he will live by them. My Sabbaths they desecrated, and I decided to pour out my rage on them, to finish my anger against them in the desert.
22. But I withheld my hand, and I acted for the sake of my name not to be profaned before the eyes of the nations before whom I had brought them out before their eyes.