²³ You shall not follow the practices of the nation that I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.^(A)

⁵ It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to occupy their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is dispossessing them before you, in order to fulfill the promise that the Lord made on oath to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.^(A)

²⁴ “Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for by all these practices the nations I am casting out before you have defiled themselves.^(A)

³⁰ So keep my charge not to commit any of these abominations that were done before you and not to defile yourselves by them: I am the Lord your God.”^(A)

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

³⁰ take care that you are not snared into imitating them, after they have been destroyed before you; do not inquire concerning their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also want to do the same.’ ³¹ You must not do the same for the Lord your God, because every abhorrent thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods. They would even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.^(A)

²⁷ (for the inhabitants of the land, who were before you, committed all of these abominations, and the land became defiled);

⁸ In one month I disposed of the three shepherds, for I had become impatient with them, and they also detested me.^(A)

Idolatry Has Brought Ruin on Israel

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