rsv Ezekiel:20:25-49
rsv@Ezekiel:20:25 @ Moreover I gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not have life;
rsv@Ezekiel:20:26 @ and I defiled them through their very gifts in making them offer by fire all their first-born, that I might horrify them; I did it that they might know that I am the LORD.
rsv@Ezekiel:20:27 @ "Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: In this again your fathers blasphemed me, by dealing treacherously with me.
rsv@Ezekiel:20:28 @ For when I had brought them into the land which I swore to give them, then wherever they saw any high hill or any leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices and presented the provocation of their offering; there they sent up their soothing odors, and there they poured out their drink offerings.
rsv@Ezekiel:20:29 @ (I said to them, What is the high place to which you go? So its name is called Bamah to this day.)
rsv@Ezekiel:20:30 @ Wherefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: Will you defile yourselves after the manner of your fathers and go astray after their detestable things?
rsv@Ezekiel:20:31 @ When you offer your gifts and sacrifice your sons by fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. And shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you.
rsv@Ezekiel:20:32 @ "What is in your mind shall never happen--the thought, `Let us be like the nations, like the tribes of the countries, and worship wood and stone.'
rsv@Ezekiel:20:33 @ "As I live, says the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, I will be king over you.
rsv@Ezekiel:20:34 @ I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out;
rsv@Ezekiel:20:35 @ and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.
rsv@Ezekiel:20:36 @ 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.
rsv@Ezekiel:20:37 @ I will make you pass under the rod, and I will let you go in by number.
rsv@Ezekiel:20:38 @ I will purge out the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against me; I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
rsv@Ezekiel:20:39 @ "As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord GOD: Go serve every one of you his idols, now and hereafter, if you will not listen to me; but my holy name you shall no more profane with your gifts and your idols.
rsv@Ezekiel:20:40 @ "For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, says the Lord GOD, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land; there I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred offerings.
rsv@Ezekiel:20:41 @ As a pleasing odor I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples, and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered; and I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations.
rsv@Ezekiel:20:42 @ And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country which I swore to give to your fathers.
rsv@Ezekiel:20:43 @ And there you shall remember your ways and all the doings with which you have polluted yourselves; and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed.
rsv@Ezekiel:20:44 @ And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for my name's sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O house of Israel, says the Lord GOD."
rsv@Ezekiel:20:45 @ And the word of the LORD came to me:
rsv@Ezekiel:20:46 @ "Son of man, set your face toward the south, preach against the south, and prophesy against the forest land in the Negeb;
rsv@Ezekiel:20:47 @ say to the forest of the Negeb, Hear the word of the LORD: Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you and every dry tree; the blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from south to north shall be scorched by it.
rsv@Ezekiel:20:48 @ All flesh shall see that I the LORD have kindled it; it shall not be quenched."
rsv@Ezekiel:20:49 @ Then I said, "Ah Lord GOD! they are saying of me, `Is he not a maker of allegories?'"