cation of their offerings, and there they set their sweet odours,
and poured forth their libations.

20:29. And I said to them: What meaneth the high place to which you go?
and the name thereof was called High-place even to this day.

20:30. Wherefore say to the house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord God:
Verily, you are defiled in the way of your fathers, and you commit
fornication with their abominations.

20:31. And you defile yourselves with all your idols unto this day, in
the offering of your gifts, when you make your children pass through the
fire: and shall I answer you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the
Lord God, I will not answer you.

20:32. Neither shall the thought of your mind come to pass, by which you
say: We will be as the Gentiles, and as the families of the earth, to
worship stocks and stones.

20:33. As I live, saith the Lord God, I will reign over you with a
strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.

20:34. And I will bring you out from the people, and I will gather you
out of the countries, in which you are scattered, I will reign over you
with a strong hand and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured
out.

20:35. And I will bring you into the wilderness of people, and there
will I plead with you face to face.

The wilderness of people... That is, a desert in which there are no
people.

20:36. As I pleaded against your fathers in the desert of the land of
Egypt; even so will I judge you, saith the Lord God.

20:37. And I will make you subject to my sceptre, and will bring you
into the bands of the covenant.

20:38. And I will pick out from among you the transgressors, and the
wicked, and will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, and they
shall not enter into the land of Israel: and you shall know that I am
the Lord.

20:39. And as for you, O house of Israel: thus saith the Lord God: Walk
ye every one after your idols, and serve them. But if in this also you
hear me not, but defile my holy name any more with your gifts, and with
your idols;

Walk ye every one, etc... It is not an allowance, much less a
commandment to serve idols; but a figure of speech, by which God would
have them to understand that if they would walk after their idols, they
must not pretend to serve him at the same time: for that he would by no
means suffer such a mixture of worship.

20:40. In my holy mountain, in the high mountain of Israel, saith the
Lord God, t