“When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there.
Parallel translations
- WEB When you have come into the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations of those nations.
- KJV When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
- BSB When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.
- NKJV “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations.
- NASB “When you enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Upon entering Canaan, Israel must not imitate the detestable practices of its nations. God's people are to be distinct, not absorbed by surrounding cultures.
Overview
As Israel takes the land, they are warned against learning the abominable customs of the peoples already there. Holiness meant being shaped by God's revelation rather than by pagan practice. This call to non-conformity echoes through Scripture and into the New Testament summons to be transformed rather than conformed to the world (Rom. 12:2).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Deut 12:29–31When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations from before you, where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them, and dwell in their land;
- Lev 18:26–27You therefore shall keep my statutes and my ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the native-born, nor the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you;
- Lev 18:30Therefore you shall keep my requirements, that you do not practice any of these abominable customs, which were practiced before you, and that you do not defile yourselves with them. I am Yahweh your God.’”
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Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 18:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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