Warning Against Idolatry

²⁹ “When ^(A)the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, ³⁰ take care ^(B)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 (C)You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every ^(D)abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for ^(E)they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

²⁶ But ^(A)you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the ^(B)native or the stranger who sojourns among you ²⁷ (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), ²⁸ lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. ²⁹ For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people. ^30 (C)So keep my charge never to practice ^(D)any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: ^(E)I am the Lord your God.”