2 Kings 16:3

16:3 He followed in the footsteps of ¹  the kings of Israel. He passed his son through the fire, ²  a horrible sin practiced by the nations ³  whom the Lord drove out from before the Israelites.

2 Kings 16:10

16:10 When King Ahaz went to meet with King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria in Damascus, he saw the altar there. ⁴  King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a drawing of the altar and a blueprint for its design. ⁵ 

2 Kings 21:2

21:2 He did evil in the sight of ⁶  the Lord and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations ⁷  whom the Lord drove out from before the Israelites.

Leviticus 18:3

18:3 You must not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you have been living, ⁸  and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan into which I am about to bring you; ⁹  you must not ¹⁰  walk in their statutes.

Leviticus 18:27-30

18:27 for the people who were in the land before you have done all these abominations, ¹¹  and the land has become unclean. 18:28 So do not make the land vomit you out because you defile it ¹²  just as it has vomited out the nations ¹³  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. ¹⁴  18:30 You must obey my charge to not practice any of the abominable statutes ¹⁵  that have been done before you, so that you do not ¹⁶  defile yourselves by them. I am the Lord your God.’”

Deuteronomy 12:30-31

12:30 After they have been destroyed from your presence, be careful not to be ensnared like they are; do not pursue their gods and say, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.” 12:31 You must not worship the Lord your God the way they do! ¹⁷  For everything that is abhorrent ¹⁸  to him, ¹⁹  everything he hates, they have done when worshiping their gods. They even burn up their sons and daughters before their gods!

Deuteronomy 18:9

Provision for Prophetism

18:9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations.

Deuteronomy 18:1

Provision for Priests and Levites

18:1 The Levitical priests ²⁰  – indeed, the entire tribe of Levi – will have no allotment or inheritance with Israel; they may eat the burnt offerings of the Lord and of his inheritance. ²¹ 

Deuteronomy 12:28

12:28 Pay careful attention to all these things I am commanding you so that it may always go well with you and your children after you when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 12:1

The Central Sanctuary

12:1 These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to obey as long as you live in the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, ²²  has given you to possess. ²³ 

Deuteronomy 16:1

The Passover-Unleavened Bread Festival

16:1 Observe the month Abib ²⁴  and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month ²⁵  he ²⁶  brought you out of Egypt by night.

Deuteronomy 21:1

Laws Concerning Unsolved Murder

21:1 If a homicide victim ²⁷  should be found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you, ²⁸  and no one knows who killed ²⁹  him,

Psalms 106:35

106:35 They mixed in with the nations

and learned their ways. ³⁰ 

Jeremiah 10:2

10:2 The Lord says,

“Do not start following pagan religious practices. ³¹ 

Do not be in awe of signs that occur ³²  in the sky

even though the nations hold them in awe.

[16:3]  ¹ tn Heb “he walked in the way of.”

[16:3]  ² sn This may refer to child sacrifice, though some interpret it as a less drastic cultic practice. For discussion see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 266-67.

[16:3]  ³ tn Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.”

[16:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “in Damascus.”

[16:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “the likeness of the altar and its pattern for all its work.”

[21:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[21:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.”

[18:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “As the work [or “deed”] of the land of Egypt, which you were dwelling in it, you must not do.”

[18:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and as the work [or “deed”] of the land of Canaan which I am bringing you to there, you must not do.” The participle “I am bringing” is inceptive; the Lord is “about to” bring them into the land of Canaan, as opposed to their having dwelt previously in the land of Egypt (see the first part of the verse).

[18:3]  ¹² tn Heb “and you shall not walk.”

[18:27]  ¹³ tn Heb “for all these abominations the men of the land who were before you have done.”

[18:28]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “And the land will not vomit you out in your defiling it.”

[18:28]  ¹⁷ 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).

[18:29]  ¹⁹ sn Regarding the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.

[18:30]  ²² tn Heb “to not do from the statutes of the detestable acts.”

[18:30]  ²³ tn Heb “and you will not.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[12:31]  ²⁵ tn Heb “you must not do thus to/for the Lord your God.”

[12:31]  ²⁶ tn See note on this term at Deut 7:25.

[12:31]  ²⁷ tn Heb “every abomination of the Lord.” See note on the word “his” in v. 27.

[18:1]  ²⁸ tn The MT places the terms “priests” and “Levites” in apposition, thus creating an epexegetical construction in which the second term qualifies the first, i.e., “Levitical priests.” This is a way of asserting their legitimacy as true priests. The Syriac renders “to the priest and to the Levite,” making a distinction between the two, but one that is out of place here.

[18:1]  ²⁹ sn Of his inheritance. This is a figurative way of speaking of the produce of the land the Lord will give to his people. It is the Lord’s inheritance, but the Levites are allowed to eat it since they themselves have no inheritance among the other tribes of Israel.

[12:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “fathers.”

[12:1]  ³² tn Heb “you must be careful to obey in the land the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days which you live in the land.” This adverbial statement modifies “to obey,” not “to possess,” so the order in the translation has been rearranged to make this clear.

[16:1]  ³⁴ sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.

[16:1]  ³⁵ tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:1]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[21:1]  ³⁷ tn Heb “slain [one].” The term חָלָל (khalal) suggests something other than a natural death (cf. Num 19:16; 23:24; Jer 51:52; Ezek 26:15; 30:24; 31:17-18).

[21:1]  ³⁸ tn The Hebrew text includes “to possess it,” but this has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:1]  ³⁹ tn Heb “struck,” but in context a fatal blow is meant; cf. NLT “who committed the murder.”

[106:35]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “their deeds.”

[10:2]  ⁴³ tn Heb “Do not learn the way of the nations.” For this use of the word “ways” (דֶּרֶךְ, derekh) compare for example Jer 12:16 and Isa 2:6.

[10:2]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “signs.” The words “that occur” are supplied in the translation for clarity.