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Dealing with foreign worship

Now once the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to take possession of, and he drives out numerous nations before you—the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: seven nations that are larger and stronger than you— once the Lord your God lays them before you, you must strike them down, placing them under the ban.[a] Don’t make any covenants with them, and don’t be merciful to them. Don’t intermarry with them. Don’t give your daughter to one of their sons to marry, and don’t take one of their daughters to marry your son, because they will turn your child away from following me so that they end up serving other gods. That will make the Lord’s anger burn against you, and he will quickly annihilate you.

Instead, this is what you must do with these nations: rip down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their sacred poles,[b] and burn their idols because you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God chose you to be his own treasured people beyond all others on the fertile land.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 7:2 See note at 2:34.
  2. Deuteronomy 7:5 Heb asherim, perhaps objects devoted to the goddess Asherah

Living God or human handiwork

10 Listen to the word that the Lord has spoken to you, people of Israel!
The Lord proclaims:
Don’t follow the ways of the nations
    or be troubled by signs in the sky,
        even though the nations are troubled by them.
The rituals of the nations are hollow:
    a tree from the forest is chopped down
        and shaped by the craftsman’s tools.
It’s overlaid with silver and gold,
    and fastened securely with hammer and nails
        so it won’t fall over.
They are no different than a scarecrow
    in a cucumber patch:
    they can’t speak;
    they must be carried
        because they can’t walk.
Don’t be afraid of them,
    because they can’t do harm or good.

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Babylon’s fall

18 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was filled with light because of his glory. He called out with a loud voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a home for demons and a lair for every unclean spirit. She is a lair for every unclean bird, and a lair for every unclean and disgusting beast because all the nations have fallen[a] due to the wine of her lustful passion. The kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth became rich from the power of her loose and extravagant ways.”

Then I heard another voice from heaven say, “Come out of her, my people, so that you don’t take part in her sins and don’t receive any of her plagues.

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Footnotes

  1. Revelation 18:3 Critical editions of the Gk New Testament read have drunk.

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