Ezekiel 20:32-44

32What 1comes 2into your mind will not come about, when you say: ‘We will be like the nations, like the tribes of the lands, 3serving wood and stone.’

33“As I live,” declares the Lord God, “surely with a mighty hand and with an 4outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I shall be 5king over you. 34I will 6bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with 7wrath poured out; 35and I will bring you into the 8wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. 36As I 9entered into judgment with your fathers in the 10wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you,” declares the Lord God. 37“I will make you 11pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; 38and I will 12purge from you the rebels and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they will 13not enter the 14land of Israel. Thus you will know that I am the Lord.

39“As for you, O house of Israel,” thus says the Lord God, “15Go, serve everyone his idols; 16but later you will surely listen to Me, and My holy name you will 17profane no longer with your gifts and with your idols. 40For on My holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel,” declares the Lord God, “there the whole house of Israel, 18all of them, will serve Me in the land; there I will 19accept them and there I will 20seek your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your holy things. 4121As a soothing aroma I will accept you when I 22bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered; and I will prove Myself 23holy among you in the sight of the nations. 42And 24you will know that I am the Lord, 25when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the 26land which I swore to give to your forefathers. 43There you will 27remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves; and you will 28loathe yourselves in your own 29sight for all the evil things that you have done. 44Then 30you will know that I am the Lord when I have dealt with you 31for My name’s sake, not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel,” declares the Lord God.’”