18 “And I said to ^dtheir children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk ^ein the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, ^fnor defile yourselves with their idols. 19 ^gI am the Lord your God; ^hwalk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules, 20 and ⁱkeep my Sabbaths holy that ^jthey may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.’ 21 ^kBut the children ^lrebelled against me. ^mThey 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.

ⁿ“Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness. 22 ^oBut I withheld my hand ^pand acted for the sake of my name, ^qthat it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out. 23 ^rMoreover, ^sI swore to them in the wilderness ^tthat I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries, 24 because they had not obeyed my rules, but had rejected my statutes and profaned my Sabbaths, ^uand their eyes were set on their fathers’ idols. 25 ^vMoreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life, 26 and I defiled them through ^wtheir very gifts ^win their offering up all their firstborn, that I might devastate them. I did it ^xthat they might know that I am the Lord.