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.
28. I brought them to the land I had promised to give them. When they saw the high hills and green trees, they offered sacrifices at all of them. They made me angry by the sacrifices they burnt and by the wine they brought as offerings.
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.