I will place the corpses of the people of Israel in front of their idols, ¹  and I will scatter your bones around your altars.

“Son of man, these men have erected their idols in their hearts and placed the obstacle leading to their iniquity ¹  right before their faces. Should I really allow them to seek ²  me?

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 

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 ¹  – with all their idols.

“‘But the Levites who went far from me, straying off from me after their idols when Israel went astray, will be responsible for ¹  their sin.

Then you will know that I am the Lord – when their dead lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and all the mountaintops, under every green tree and every leafy oak, ¹  the places where they have offered fragrant incense to all their idols.

Then your survivors will remember me among the nations where they are exiled. They will realize ¹  how I was crushed by their unfaithful ²  heart which turned from me and by their eyes which lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves ³  because of the evil they have done and because of all their abominable practices.

Because they used to minister to them before their idols, and became a sinful obstacle ¹  to the house of Israel, consequently I have made a vow ²  concerning them, declares the sovereign Lord, that they will be responsible ³  for their sin.