³⁰ take care ^(A)that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’

^32 (A)“What is in your mind shall never happen—the thought, ^(B)‘Let us be like the nations, like the tribes of the countries, ^(C)and worship wood and stone.’

² Thus says the Lord:

The New Life

¹⁷ Now this I say and ^(A)testify in the Lord, ^(B)that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, ^(C)in the futility of their minds.

²⁸ For when I had brought them into the land that ^(A)I swore to give them, then wherever they saw ^(B)any high hill or any leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices and there they presented ^(C)the provocation of their offering; there they sent up their pleasing aromas, and there they poured out their drink offerings.

¹⁶ And ^(A)you shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you. ^(B)Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be ^(C)a snare to you.

³ For the time that is past ^(A)suffices ^(B)for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. ⁴ With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of ^(C)debauchery, and ^(D)they malign you;

^2 (A)Do not be conformed to this world,^[a] but be transformed by ^(B)the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may ^(C)discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.^[b]