14. But for the sake of my name I did what would keep it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.
15. Also with uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land I had given them – a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands –
16. because they rejected my laws and did not follow my decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths. For their hearts were devoted to their idols.
17. Yet I looked on them with pity and did not destroy them or put an end to them in the wilderness.
18. I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not follow the statutes of your parents or keep their laws or defile yourselves with their idols.
19. I am the Lord your God; follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
20. Keep my Sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’