23. Also with uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would disperse them among the nations and scatter them through the countries,
24. because they had not obeyed my laws but had rejected my decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths, and their eyes lusted after their parents’ idols.
25. So I gave them other statutes that were not good and laws through which they could not live;
26. I defiled them through their gifts – the sacrifice of every firstborn – that I might fill them with horror so that they would know that I am the Lord.”
27. ‘Therefore, son of man, speak to the people of Israel and say to them, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: in this also your ancestors blasphemed me by being unfaithful to me:
28. when I brought them into the land I had sworn to give them and they saw any high hill or any leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices, made offerings that aroused my anger, presented their fragrant incense and poured out their drink offerings.
29. Then I said to them: what is this high place you go to?” ’ (It is called Bamah to this day.)
30. ‘Therefore say to the Israelites: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: will you defile yourselves the way your ancestors did and lust after their vile images?
31. When you offer your gifts – the sacrifice of your children in the fire – you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. Am I to let you enquire of me, you Israelites? As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I will not let you enquire of me.
32. ‘ “You say, ‘We want to be like the nations, like the peoples of the world, who serve wood and stone.’ But what you have in mind will never happen.
33. As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I will reign over you with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath.
34. I will bring you from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered – with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath.
35. I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations and there, face to face, I will execute judgment upon you.