You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.
Parallel translations
- WEB You shall not walk in the customs of the nation, which I am casting out before you: for they did all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.
- KJV And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.
- NKJV And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am casting out before you; for they commit all these things, and therefore I abhor them.
- NASB Furthermore, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I am going to drive out before you, because they did all these things; therefore I have felt disgust for them.
- NLT Do not live according to the customs of the people I am driving out before you. It is because they do these shameful things that I detest them.
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
Israel must not follow the customs of the nations God is driving out, whose practices He abhorred. God's people are to reject the world's corrupt ways.
Overview
The Canaanites were being dispossessed precisely because of the abominations just described. God 'abhorred them' for these sins, showing that His judgment is righteous and not arbitrary. Israel is warned not to adopt the very practices that brought destruction, a timeless call for God's people to be distinct from the surrounding culture (Rom. 12:2).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Deut 9:5It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the LORD your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- Lev 18:24Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves.
- Lev 18:3You must not follow the practices of the land of Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not follow the practices of the land of Canaan, into which I am bringing you. You must not walk in their customs.
- Lev 18:30You must keep My charge not to practice any of the abominable customs that were practiced before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them. I am the LORD your God.”
- Deut 12:30–31be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”
- Lev 18:27For the men who were in the land before you committed all these abominations, and the land has become defiled.
- Zech 11:8And in one month I dismissed three shepherds. My soul grew impatient with the flock, and their souls also detested me.
- Jer 10:1–2Hear the word that the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel.
- Ps 78:59On hearing it, God was furious and rejected Israel completely.
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Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 20:23 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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