So through all their dwelling places I will stretch out My hand against them and make the land more desolate and waste than the wilderness toward Diblah; so they will know that I am the Lord.”’”

And now it is planted in the wilderness, In a dry and thirsty land.

So I took them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness.

But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not walk in My statutes and they rejected My ordinances, which, if a person follows them, then he will live by them; and they greatly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath on them in the wilderness, to annihilate them.

Also I swore 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 glory of all the lands,

Yet My eye spared them rather than destroying them, and I did not bring about their annihilation in the wilderness.

“Instead, I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers or keep their ordinances or defile yourselves with their idols.

But the children rebelled against Me; they did not walk in My statutes, nor were they careful to follow My ordinances which, if a person follows them, then he will live by them; they profaned My Sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath on them, to use up My anger against them in the wilderness.

Also I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them among the lands,

and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.

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 Lord God.

And the sound of a carefree multitude was with her; and heavy drinkers were brought from the wilderness with people from the multitude of humanity. And they put bracelets on the wrists of the women and beautiful crowns on their heads.

I will abandon you to the wilderness, you and all the fish of your canals; You will fall on the open field; you will not be brought together or gathered. I have given you for food to the animals of the earth and to the birds of the sky.

“And I will make a covenant of peace with them and eliminate harmful animals from the land, so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.