A Command to Moses. ¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses, Soon you will be at rest with your ancestors, and then this people will prostitute themselves^[a] by following the foreign gods among whom they will live in the land they are about to enter.^(A) They will forsake me and break the covenant which I have made with them.

²¹ But their children rebelled against me: they did not follow my statutes or keep my ordinances that bring life to those who observe them; my sabbaths they desecrated. Then I considered pouring out my fury on them, spending my anger against them in the wilderness; ²² but I stayed my hand, acting for the sake of my name, lest it be desecrated in the eyes of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out. ²³ Nevertheless I swore to them in the wilderness that I would disperse them among the nations and scatter them in other lands, ²⁴ because they did not carry out my ordinances, but rejected my statutes and desecrated my sabbaths, having eyes only for the idols of their ancestors. ²⁵ Therefore I gave them statutes that were not good,^[a] and ordinances through which they could not have life.^{(A) 26} I let them become defiled by their offerings, by having them make a fiery offering of every womb’s firstborn, in order to ruin them so they might know that I am the Lord.^(B)

²⁷ Therefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and tell them: Thus says the Lord God: In this way also your ancestors blasphemed me, breaking faith with me. ²⁸ When I brought them to the land I had sworn to give them, and they saw all its high hills and leafy trees, there they offered sacrifices, there they made offerings to provoke me, there they sent up sweet-smelling oblations, there they poured out their libations.^{(C) 29} So I said to them, “What is this high place^[b] to which you go?” Thus its name became “high place” even to this day.^{(D) 30} Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Will you defile yourselves in the way your ancestors did? Will you lust after their detestable idols?