Ezekiel 20:18-26

New American Standard Bible 1995

¹⁸ “I said to their ^[a](A)children in the wilderness, ‘^(B)Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers or keep their ordinances or defile yourselves with their idols. ^19 (C)I am the Lord your God; ^(D)walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and ^[b]observe them. ^20 (E)Sanctify My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.’ ²¹ But the ^(F)children rebelled against Me; they did not walk in My statutes, nor were they careful to observe My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live; they profaned My sabbaths. So I ^[c]resolved to pour out My wrath on them, to accomplish My anger against them in the wilderness. ²² But I ^(G)withdrew My hand and acted ^(H)for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out. ²³ Also I swore to them in the wilderness that I would ^(I)scatter them among the nations and disperse them among the lands, ²⁴ because they had not observed My ordinances, but had rejected My statutes and had profaned My sabbaths, and ^(J)their eyes were ^[d]on the idols of their fathers. ²⁵ I also gave them statutes that were ^(K)not good and ordinances by which they could not live; ²⁶ and I pronounced them ^(L)unclean because of their gifts, in that they ^(M)caused all ^[e]their firstborn to pass through the fire so that I might make them desolate, in order that they might ^(N)know that I am the Lord.”’