13Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances —though the man who does these things will live by them — and they utterly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and put an end to them in the wilderness.
14But I acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.
15Moreover, with an uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them — a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands—
16because they kept rejecting My ordinances, refusing to walk in My statutes, and profaning My Sabbaths; for their hearts continually went after their idols.
17Yet I looked on them with pity and did not destroy them or bring them to an end in the wilderness.
18In the wilderness I said to their children: ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers or keep their ordinances or defile yourselves with their idols.
— Ezekiel 20:13-18