29. I said to them, What shrine are you going to now? So it’s called Shrine to this very day.
30. So now say to the house of Israel, The Lord God proclaims: Will you defile yourselves as your ancestors did, and will you prostitute yourself after their disgusting things?
31. When you offer up your gifts and make your children pass through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols to this very day. Should I let you seek me out, house of Israel? This is what the Lord God says: As surely as I live, I won’t let you seek me.
32. What is in your minds will never happen! You’ve been saying, "Let’s be like the nations and the clans of the lands in the service of wood and stone."
33. This is what the Lord God says: As surely as I live, with a strong hand, an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, I will be your king!
34. I will lead you out from the peoples and gather you from the countries where you’ve been scattered—yes, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out!
35. I will march you out to the wilderness nations, and there I will judge you face-to-face.
36. Just as I judged your ancestors in the desert of the land of Egypt, so will I judge you. This is what the Lord God says.
37. I will make you walk under the rod, and I will bring you into the covenant bond.
38. I will remove from among you those who rebel and transgress against me. I will lead them out from the land where they lived as immigrants, but they won’t enter Israel’s fertile land. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
39. But to you, house of Israel, the Lord God proclaims: Go ahead and serve your idols, all of you! But afterward, if any of you are left to listen to me, you will no longer make my holy name impure with your gifts or your idols!
40. On my holy mountain, on the high mountain in Israel, the whole house of Israel will serve me there—every one of them in the land! This is what the Lord God says. There I will accept them, and there I will ask for their offerings, their finest gifts, and all their holy things.
41. When I bring you out from the nations and gather you from the countries where you are scattered, I will accept you as a pleasing aroma. Through you I will be made holy in the sight of the nations.
42. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I bring you to Israel’s fertile land, to the land that I swore to give to your ancestors.
43. There you will remember how your ways and all your wicked deeds defiled you, and you will loathe yourselves for all the wicked things that you’ve done.