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.
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.
- BSB You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, 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.
- 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 9:5Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
- Lev 18:24“‘Don’t defile yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations which I am casting out before you were defiled.
- Lev 18:3You 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, where I am bringing you. You shall not follow their statutes.
- 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.’”
- Deut 12:30–31be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before you; and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”
- Lev 18:27(for the men of the land that were before you had done all these abominations, and the land became defiled);
- Zech 11:8I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me.
- Jer 10:1–2Hear the word which Yahweh speaks to you, house of Israel!
- Ps 78:59When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;
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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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