²⁴ You must not bow down to their gods or worship them. Do not imitate their practices. Instead, demolish them^[a] and smash their sacred pillars to pieces.^(A)

²⁴ “Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves by all these things. ²⁵ The land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.^{(A) 26} But you are to keep My statutes and ordinances. You must not commit any of these detestable things—not the native or the foreigner who lives among you. ²⁷ For the men who were in the land prior to you have committed all these detestable things, and the land has become defiled. ²⁸ If you defile the land, it will vomit^(B) you out as it has vomited out the nations that were before you. ²⁹ Any person who does any of these detestable practices must be cut off from his people. ³⁰ You must keep My instruction to not do any of the detestable customs^(C) that were practiced before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them; I am Yahweh your God.”

Why Israel Fell

⁷ This disaster happened because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt^(A) and because they had worshiped^[a] other gods.^{(B) 8} They had lived according to the customs of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites^(C) and the customs the kings of Israel had introduced.^(D)