15. Yet I also lifted My hand to them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the splendor of all lands.
16. For they rejected My laws, did not walk in My rulings and profaned My Shabbatot—for their heart went after their idols.
17. Nevertheless, My eye spared them from destruction, so I did not make a full end of them in the wilderness.
18. “I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, do not keep their ordinances, do not defile yourselves with their idols.
19. I am Adonai your God. Walk in My statutes, keep My ordinances and do them.
20. Keep My Shabbatot holy, so they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am Adonai your God.’
21. “But the children rebelled against Me; they did not walk in My statutes. They did not keep My ordinances to do them, which if a man does, he will live by them; they profaned My Shabbatot. Then I resolved to pour out My fury on them, to expend My anger on them in the wilderness.
22. Nevertheless, I withheld My hand. For the sake of My Name I did what would keep it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.
23. I also lifted up My hand to them in the wilderness, to scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries.
24. For they had not obeyed My ordinances, but had rejected My statutes and profaned My Shabbatot. Their eyes went after their fathers’ idols.
25. I also gave them statutes that were not good, ordinances by which they could not live.
26. I let them become polluted in their own gifts, when they offered up all that opened the womb to pass through the fire, so that I might make them desolate, so that they would know that I am Adonai.
27. “Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel and say to them, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Again your fathers have blasphemed Me, in that they dealt faithlessly with Me.
28. When I brought them into the land, which I lifted up My hand to give to them, they saw every high hill and every leafy tree. There they slaughtered their sacrifices and presented their offensive offering. There they made their soothing aroma and poured out their drink offerings.
29. So I asked them, ‘What is the high place where you are going?’ So the name of it is called Bamah to this day.
30. Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says Adonai Elohim: Will you pollute yourselves after the manner of your fathers and go after their abominations?
31. When offering your gifts, making your sons pass through the fire, you keep polluting yourselves with all your idols, up to this day. So should I be inquired of by you, house of Israel? As I live”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“I will not be inquired of by you.
32. What comes up in your mind will not happen at all, when you say, ‘Let us be like the nations, like the families of the countries, worshiping wood and stone.’
33. As I live,”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with fury poured out, I will be king over you.