New Living Translation (NLT)
Ezekiel 20
35 I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, and there I will judge you face to face.
36 I will judge you there just as I did your ancestors in the wilderness after bringing them out of Egypt, says the Sovereign LORD.
37 I will examine you carefully and hold you to the terms of the covenant.
38 I will purge you of all those who rebel and revolt against me. I will bring them out of the countries where they are in exile, but they will never enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
39 “As for you, O people of Israel, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Go right ahead and worship your idols, but sooner or later you will obey me and will stop bringing shame on my holy name by worshiping idols.
40 For on my holy mountain, the great mountain of Israel, says the Sovereign LORD, the people of Israel will someday worship me, and I will accept them. There I will require that you bring me all your offerings and choice gifts and sacrifices.
41 When I bring you home from exile, you will be like a pleasing sacrifice to me. And I will display my holiness through you as all the nations watch.
42 Then when I have brought you home to the land I promised with a solemn oath to give to your ancestors, you will know that I am the LORD.
43 You will look back on all the ways you defiled yourselves and will hate yourselves because of the evil you have done.
44 You will know that I am the LORD, O people of Israel, when I have honored my name by treating you mercifully in spite of your wickedness. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken!”
45 Then this message came to me from the LORD:
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