Ezekiel 20:18-26

18"And I said to their children in the wilderness, 'Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, nor defile yourselves with their idols.

19I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules,

20and keep my Sabbaths holy that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.'

21But the children rebelled against me. 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. "Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness.

22But I withheld my hand and acted 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.

23Moreover, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries,

24because they had not obeyed my rules, but had rejected my statutes and profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were set on their fathers' idols.

25Moreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life,

26and I defiled them through their very gifts in their offering up all their firstborn, that I might devastate them. I did it that they might know that I am the Lord.