But I refrained from doing so, and acted instead for the sake of my reputation, so that I would not be profaned before the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

So I said to them, What is this high place you go to?’” (So it is called “High Place” to this day.)

“‘What you plan will never happen. You say, “We will be like the nations, like the clans of the lands, who serve gods of wood and stone.”

I will bring you out from the nations, and will gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a powerful hand and an outstretched arm and with an outpouring of rage!

Just as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the sovereign Lord.

Then you will know that I am the Lord when I bring you to the land of Israel, to the land I swore to give to your fathers.

Because I will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked, my sword will go out from its sheath against everyone from the south to the north.

“‘As for you, profane and wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, the time of final punishment,

A total ruin I will make it! It will come to an end when the one arrives to whom I have assigned judgment.’

Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong when I deal with you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it!

She bestowed her sexual favors on them; all of them were the choicest young men of Assyria. She defiled herself with all whom she desired – with all their idols.

When she lustfully exposed her nakedness, I was disgusted with her, just as I had been disgusted with her sister.

For they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and their sons, whom they bore to me, they have passed through the fire as food to their idols.

Ezekiel will be an object lesson for you; you will do all that he has done. When it happens, then you will know that I am the sovereign Lord.’

“Son of man, because Tyre has said about Jerusalem, ‘Aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I will become rich, now that she has been destroyed,’

“‘For this is what the sovereign Lord says: At the end of forty years I will gather Egypt from the peoples where they were scattered.

“‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because it was tall in stature, and its top reached into the clouds, and it was proud of its height,

“Edom is there with her kings and all her princes. Despite their might they are laid with those killed by the sword; they lie with the uncircumcised and those who descend to the pit.

Then they will know that I am the Lord when I turn the land into a desolate ruin because of all the abominable deeds they have committed.’

Because you push with your side and your shoulder, and thrust your horns at all the weak sheep until you scatter them abroad,