²⁴ Do not bow in worship to their gods, and do not serve 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 iniquity, 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 acts—not the native or the alien who resides among you. ²⁷ For the people who were in the land prior to you have committed all these detestable acts, 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 is to 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 the Lord your God.”

Why Israel Fell

⁷ This disaster happened because the people of Israel 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 worshiped^[a] other gods.^{(B) 8} They lived according to the customs of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites^(C) and according to what the kings of Israel did.^(D)