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Ezekiel

Punishment for Profane Worship and Promise of Restoration

20
Chapter 20
30 Therefore say to the house of Israel, "Thus says the Lord GOD: In the way of your fathers you defile yourselves, and after their abominations you prostitute yourselves." 31 In offering your sons by passing them through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. And I will judge you, house of Israel. As I live, says the Lord GOD, I will not judge you. 32 And what you are bringing up upon your spirit/mind will not be: "What you are saying will not be: 'We will be like the nations, like the families of the lands, to serve wood and stone.'" 33 As I live, says the Lord GOD, surely with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with poured-out wrath I will rule over you. 34 And I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you were scattered among them, with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with poured-out wrath. 35 And I will bring you to the wilderness of the peoples, and I will judge you there face to face. 36 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, says the Lord GOD. 37 And I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. 38 I will purge the rebels and transgressors against me from you; I will bring them out from the land of their sojournings, but they shall not enter the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am the LORD. 39 And you, house of Israel, thus says the Lord GOD: Go serve your idols, man, and after that—if you will not hear me and will not profane my holy name again with your gift offerings and your idols. 40 For on my holy mountain, on the mountain height of Israel, declares the Lord GOD, there they will serve me, all the house of Israel, all of them in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your heave offerings and the firstfruits of your Levitical burdens, all your holy things. 41 As a pleasing aroma to the earth I will accept you when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands in which you were scattered among them, and I will sanctify myself in you before the eyes of the nations. 42 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the soil of Israel, into the land for which I lifted my hand to give to your fathers. 43 And you shall remember there your ways and your doings by which you became unclean, and you shall loathe yourselves for all your evils which you did. 44 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I act for the sake of my name, not according to your evil ways or your corrupting deeds, house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD.