Ezekiel 20:18-26

English Standard Version

¹⁸ “And I said to ^(A)their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk ^(B)in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, ^(C)nor defile yourselves with their idols. ^19 (D)I am the Lord your God; ^(E)walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules, ²⁰ and ^(F)keep my Sabbaths holy that ^(G)they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.’ ^21 (H)But the children ^(I)rebelled against me. ^(J)They did not walk in my statutes and were not careful to obey my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; they profaned my Sabbaths.

^(K)“Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness. ^22 (L)But I withheld my hand ^(M)and acted for the sake of my name, ^(N)that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out. ^23 (O)Moreover, ^(P)I swore to them in the wilderness ^(Q)that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries, ²⁴ because they had not obeyed my rules, but had rejected my statutes and profaned my Sabbaths, ^(R)and their eyes were set on their fathers' idols. ^25 (S)Moreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life, ²⁶ and I defiled them through ^(T)their very gifts ^(U)in their offering up all their firstborn, that I might devastate them. I did it ^(V)that they might know that I am the Lord.