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18And I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their ordinances, nor defile yourselves with their idols. 19I am Jehovah your God: walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them; 20and hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am Jehovah your God. 21But the children rebelled against me; they walked not in my statutes, neither kept mine ordinances to do them, which if a man do, he shall live in them; they profaned my sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness. 22Nevertheless I withdrew my hand, and wrought for my name`s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them forth. 23Moreover I sware unto them in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the nations, and disperse them through the countries; 24because they had not executed mine ordinances, but had rejected my statutes, and had profaned my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers` idols. 25Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances wherein they should not live; 26and I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through [the fire] all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am Jehovah.
Ezekiel 20:18-26 (ASV)