Study Desk

"Therefore, say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: "Will you defile yourselves in the way of your ^(C1)fathers and adulterously pursue their detestable things?

"And ^(F1)when you offer your gifts, when you ^(C1)make your sons pass through the fire, you are defiling yourselves with all your idols to this day. So shall I be inquired of by you, house of Israel? As I live," declares the Lord GOD, "I certainly will not be inquired of by you.

"And whatever ^(C1)comes ^(F1)into your mind certainly will not come about, when you say: 'We will be like the nations, like the families of the lands, ^(C2)serving wood and stone.'

"As I live," declares the Lord GOD, "with a mighty hand and with an ^(C1)outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I assuredly shall be ^(C2)king over you.

"I will ^(C1)bring 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 ^(C2)wrath poured out;

and I will bring you into the ^(C1)wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.

"Just as I ^(C1)entered into judgment with your fathers in the ^(C2)wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you," declares the Lord GOD.

"I will make you ^(C1)pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant;

and I will ^(C1)purge from you the rebels and those who revolt against Me; I will bring them out of the land where they reside, but they will ^(C2)not enter the ^(F1)land of Israel. So you will know that I am the LORD.

"As for you, house of Israel," this is what the Lord GOD says: "^(C1)Go, serve, everyone of you his idols; ^(F1)but later you will certainly listen to Me, and My holy name you will no longer ^(C2)defile with your gifts and your idols.

"For on My holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel," declares the Lord GOD, "there the entire house of Israel, ^(C1)all of them, will serve Me in the land; there I will ^(C2)accept them and there I will demand your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your holy things.

"^(F1)As a soothing aroma I will accept you when I ^(C1)bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered; and I will show Myself to be ^(C2)holy among you in the sight of the nations.

"And ^(C1)you will know that I am the LORD, ^(C2)when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the ^(C3)land which I swore to give to your forefathers.

"And there you will ^(C1)remember your ways and all your deeds by which you have defiled yourselves; and you will ^(C2)loathe yourselves in your own ^(F1)sight for all the evil things that you have done.

"Then ^(C1)you will know that I am the LORD, when I have dealt with you ^(C2)in behalf of My name, not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt deeds, house of Israel," declares the Lord GOD.'"