³⁰ “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Will you defile yourselves like your fathers^[a] and engage in prostitution with detestable idols? ³¹ When you present your sacrifices^[b]—when you make your sons pass through the fire—you defile yourselves with all your idols to this very day. Will I allow you to seek me,^[c] O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I will not allow you to seek me!^[d]

³² “‘What you plan^[e] will never happen. You say, “We will be^[f] like the nations, like the clans of the lands, who serve gods of wood and stone.”^{[g] 33} As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, with a powerful hand and an outstretched arm^[h] and with an outpouring of rage, I will be king over you. ³⁴ I will bring you out from the nations and will gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a powerful hand and an outstretched arm and with an outpouring of rage! ³⁵ I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. ³⁶ Just as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Sovereign Lord. ³⁷ I will make you pass under^[i] the shepherd’s staff,^[j] and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. ³⁸ I will eliminate from among you the rebels and those who revolt^[k] against me. I will bring them out from the land where they have been residing, but they will not come to the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.