^23 (A)And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them.

^5 (A)Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm ^(B)the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

^24 (A)“Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, ^(B)for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean,

^30 (A)So keep my charge never to practice ^(B)any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: ^(C)I am the Lord your God.”

^3 (A)You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and ^(B)you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes.

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.’ ^31 (B)You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every ^(C)abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for ^(D)they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

²⁷ (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean),

⁸ In one month ^(A)I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me.

Idols and the Living God

10 Hear the word that the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. ² Thus says the Lord: