^4 (A)“Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is ^(B)because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you.

¹⁷ then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’

Avoid Wicked Customs

⁹ “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, ^(A)you shall not learn to follow the ^[a]abominations of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter ^(B)pass^[b] through the fire, ^(C)or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ^11 (D)or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or ^(E)one who calls up the dead. ¹² For all who do these things are ^[c]an abomination to the Lord, and ^(F)because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. ¹³ You shall be ^[d]blameless before the Lord your God. ¹⁴ For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not ^[e]appointed such for you.

^5 (A)It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may ^[a]fulfill the ^(B)word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁹ who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, ^(A)not according to our works, but ^(B)according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus ^(C)before time began,