18. Instead, I warned the young people among them: do not keep the laws your ancestors made; do not follow their customs or defile yourselves with their idols.
19. I am the Lord your God. Obey my laws and my commands.
20. Make the Sabbath a holy day, so that it will be a sign of the covenant we made, and will remind you that I am the Lord your God.
21. “But that generation also defied me. They broke my laws and did not keep my commands, which bring life to anyone who obeys them. They profaned the Sabbath. I was ready to let them feel the force of my anger there in the desert and kill them all.
22. But I did not, since that would have brought dishonour to my name among the nations which had seen me bring Israel out of Egypt.
23. So I made another promise in the desert. I vowed that I would scatter them all over the world.
24. I did this because they had rejected my commands, broken my laws, profaned the Sabbath, and worshipped the same idols their ancestors had served.
25. “Then I gave them laws that are not good and commands that do not bring life.
26. I let them defile themselves with their own offerings, and I let them sacrifice their firstborn sons. This was to punish them and show them that I am the Lord.
27. “Now then, mortal man, tell the Israelites what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying to them. This is another way their ancestors insulted me by their unfaithfulness.