Scriptures

New King James Version (NKJV)

Ezekiel 20
³⁰ Therefore say to the house of Israel, ’Thus says the Lord God: "Are you defiling yourselves in the manner of your fathers, and committing harlotry according to their abominations?
³¹ For when you offer your gifts and make your sons pass through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols, even to this day. So 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.
³² What you have in your mind shall never be, when you say, ’We will be like the Gentiles, like the families in other countries, serving wood and stone.’
³³ "As I live," says the Lord God, "surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, I will rule over you.
³⁴ I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out.
³⁵ And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead My case with you face to face.
³⁶ Just as I pleaded My case with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will plead My case with you," says the Lord God.
³⁷ "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 from among you, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
³⁹ "As for you, O house of Israel," thus says the Lord God: "Go, serve every one of you his idols--and hereafter--if you will not obey me; but profane My holy name no more with your gifts and your idols.
⁴⁰ For on My holy mountain, on the mountain height of Israel," says the Lord God, "there all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, shall serve Me; there I will accept them, and there I will require your offerings and the firstfruits of your sacrifices, together with all your holy things.