If you make me an altar of stone, you must not build it ¹  of stones shaped with tools, ²  for if you use your tool on it you have defiled it. ³ 

And you will bear no sin concerning it when you offer up the best of it. And you must not profane the holy things of the Israelites, or else you will die.’” ¹ 

lest I become satisfied and act deceptively ¹  and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or lest I become poor and steal and demean ²  the name of my God.

For my sake alone ¹  I will act, for how can I allow my name to be defiled? ²  I will not share my glory with anyone else! ³ 

I did this ¹  because they rejected my regulations, did not follow my statutes, and desecrated my Sabbaths; for their hearts followed their idols. ² 

I did this ¹  because they did not observe my regulations, they rejected my statutes, they desecrated my Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on ²  their fathers’ idols.

“‘As for you, profane and wicked prince of Israel, ¹  whose day has come, the time of final punishment,

Her prophets are proud; ¹  they are deceitful men. Her priests defile what is holy; ²  they break God’s laws. ³ 

Or have you not read in the law that the priests in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are not guilty?

So you must keep the Sabbath, for it is holy for you. Everyone who defiles it ¹  must surely be put to death; indeed, ²  if anyone does ³  any ⁴  work on it, then that person will be cut off from among his ⁵  people.

but he must not go into the veil-canopy ¹  or step forward to the altar because he has a physical flaw. Thus ²  he must not profane my holy places, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”

Say to the Ammonites, ‘Hear the word of the sovereign Lord: This is what the sovereign Lord says: You said “Aha!” about my sanctuary when it was desecrated, about the land of Israel when it was made desolate, and about the house of Judah when they went into exile.

In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence, ¹  and you sinned; so I defiled you and banished you ²  from the mountain of God – the guardian cherub expelled you ³  from the midst of the stones of fire.

They trample ¹  on the dirt-covered heads of the poor; ²  they push the destitute away. ³  A man and his father go to the same girl; ⁴  in this way they show disrespect ⁵  for my moral purity. ⁶ 

if they break ¹  my rules and do not keep my commandments,

You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and scraps of bread. You have put to death people ¹  who should not die and kept alive those who should not live by your lies to my people, who listen to lies!

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake that I am about to act, O house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy reputation ¹  which you profaned among the nations where you went.

He must not marry ¹  a widow, a divorced woman, or one profaned by prostitution; he may only take a virgin from his people ²  as a wife.

The people who do this will be blessed, ¹  the people who commit themselves to obedience, ²  who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it, who refrain from doing anything that is wrong. ³ 

I will bring the most wicked of the nations and they will take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the arrogance of the strong, and their sanctuaries ¹  will be desecrated.