³⁰ take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’

^32 (A)What you have in your mind shall never be, when you say, ‘We will be like the Gentiles, like the families in other countries, serving wood and stone.’

² Thus says the Lord:

The New Man

¹⁷ This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should ^(A)no longer walk as ^[a]the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,

²⁸ When I brought them into the land concerning which I had raised My hand in an oath to give them, and ^(A)they saw all the high hills and all the thick trees, there they offered their sacrifices and provoked Me with their offerings. There they also sent up their ^(B)sweet aroma and poured out their drink offerings.

¹⁶ Also you shall ^[a]destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will ^(A)be a snare to you.

³ For we have spent enough of our past ^[a]lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. ⁴ In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you.

² And ^(A)do not be conformed to this world, but ^(B)be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may ^(C)prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.