Ezekiel 20:30-38

The Voice

Eternal One: ³⁰ Therefore, tell the people of Israel that the Eternal Lord says if you degrade yourselves in the same ways your fathers did—prostituting yourselves to the same foul, breathless images, ³¹ giving your children to them as burnt offerings, and degrading yourselves with those idols still today—do you think I should allow you to ask questions of Me, Israel? As surely as I live, I, the Eternal, say I will not allow you to ask Me anything.

³² You entertain thoughts such as, “We want to be like the other nations, like the other people of the world who serve idols made of wood and stone.” But your secret thoughts will never become a reality.

^33-34 As surely as I live, I, the Eternal Lord, proclaim I will rule as your king with a fierce and mighty hand, an outstretched arm, and an overflowing wrath. With My power, I will bring you out of the nations and gather you from the unfamiliar lands where you have been scattered. ³⁵ I will bring you into the wilderness of nations, and I will personally render My judgment upon you. ³⁶ I will judge you in the same way I judged your fathers in the wilderness that lies east of the land of Egypt.

³⁷ I will have you pass under My rod, and I will make you live up to the terms of the covenant. ³⁸ I will get rid of the rebels and traitors among you. I may bring them out of the lands where they are exiled, but I will not allow them back to the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Eternal One.