Leviticus 18:25-29

18:25 Therefore ¹  the land has become unclean and I have brought the punishment for its iniquity upon it, ²  so that the land has vomited out its inhabitants. 18:26 You yourselves must obey ³  my statutes and my regulations and must not do any of these abominations, both the native citizen and the resident foreigner in your midst, ⁴  18:27 for the people who were in the land before you have done all these abominations, ⁵  and the land has become unclean. 18:28 So do not make the land vomit you out because you defile it ⁶  just as it has vomited out the nations ⁷  that were before you. 18:29 For if anyone does any of these abominations, the persons who do them will be cut off from the midst of their people. ⁸ 

Deuteronomy 12:31

12:31 You must not worship the Lord your God the way they do! ⁹  For everything that is abhorrent ¹⁰  to him, ¹¹  everything he hates, they have done when worshiping their gods. They even burn up their sons and daughters before their gods!

Deuteronomy 12:2

12:2 You must by all means destroy ¹²  all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods – on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. ¹³ 

Deuteronomy 1:14

1:14 You replied to me that what I had said to you was good.

Ezekiel 16:51

16:51 Samaria has not committed half the sins you have; you have done more abominable deeds than they did. ¹⁴  You have made your sisters appear righteous with all the abominable things you have done.

¹ tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative or even inferential force here.

² tn Heb “and I have visited its [punishment for] iniquity on it.” See the note on Lev 17:16 above.

³ tn Heb “And you shall keep, you.” The latter emphatic personal pronoun “you” is left out of a few medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate.

⁴ tn Heb “the native and the sojourner”; NIV “The native-born and the aliens”; NAB “whether natives or resident aliens.”

⁵ tn Heb “for all these abominations the men of the land who were before you have done.”

⁶ tn Heb “And the land will not vomit you out in your defiling it.”

⁷ tc The MT reads the singular “nation” and is followed by ASV, NASB, NRSV; the LXX, Syriac, and Targum have the plural “nations” (cf. v. 24).

⁸ sn Regarding the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.

⁹ tn Heb “you must not do thus to/for the Lord your God.”

¹⁰ tn See note on this term at Deut 7:25.

¹¹ tn Heb “every abomination of the Lord.” See note on the word “his” in v. 27.

¹² tn Heb “destroying you must destroy”; KJV “Ye shall utterly (surely ASV) destroy”; NRSV “must demolish completely.” The Hebrew infinitive absolute precedes the verb for emphasis, which is reflected in the translation by the words “by all means.”

¹³ sn Every leafy tree. This expression refers to evergreens which, because they keep their foliage throughout the year, provided apt symbolism for nature cults such as those practiced in Canaan. The deity particularly in view is Asherah, wife of the great god El, who was considered the goddess of fertility and whose worship frequently took place at shrines near or among clusters (groves) of such trees (see also Deut 7:5). See J. Hadley, NIDOTTE 1:569-70; J. DeMoor, TDOT 1:438-44.

¹⁴ tn Or “you have multiplied your abominable deeds beyond them.”