29. I asked them: what are these high places where you go? So they have been called ‘High Places’ ever since.
30. Now tell the Israelites what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying: why must you commit the same sins your ancestors did and go running after their idols?
31. Even today you offer the same gifts and defile yourselves with the same idols by sacrificing your children to them in the fire. And then you Israelites still come to ask what my will is! As surely as I, the Sovereign Lord, am the living God, I will not let you ask me anything.
32. You have made up your minds that you want to be like the other nations, like the people who live in other countries and worship trees and rocks. But that will never be.
33. “As surely as I, the Sovereign Lord, am the living God, I warn you that in my anger I will rule over you with a strong hand, with all my power.
34. I will show you my power and my anger when I gather you together and bring you back from all the countries where you have been scattered.
35. I will bring you into the ‘Desert of the Nations’, and there I will condemn you to your face.
36. I will now condemn you just as I condemned your ancestors in the Sinai Desert,” says the Sovereign Lord.
37. “I will take firm control of you and make you obey my covenant.
38. I will take away from among you those who are rebellious and sinful. I will take them out of the lands where they are living now, but I will not let them return to the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”
39. The Sovereign Lord said, “And now, all you Israelites, please yourselves! Go on and serve your idols! But I warn you that after this you will have to obey me and stop dishonouring my holy name by offering gifts to your idols.