² For your part, do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my command. See what you have done!^(A)

² and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.^{(A) 3} Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,^{(B) 4} for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.^(C)

⁵ Thus says the Lord:

The Temple of the Living God

¹⁴ Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and lawlessness have in common? Or what partnership is there between light and darkness?^{(A) 15} What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we^[a] are the temple of the living God, as God said,

²³ But this command I gave them, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.”^{(A) 24} Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but, in the stubbornness of their evil will, they walked in their own counsels and looked backward rather than forward.^{(B) 25} From the day that your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day,^{(C) 26} yet they did not listen to me or pay attention, but they stiffened their necks. They did worse than their ancestors did.^(D)

²⁷ So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you.^{(E) 28} You shall say to them: This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.^(F)