Leviticus 18:3

18:3 You must not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you have been living, ¹  and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan into which I am about to bring you; ²  you must not ³  walk in their statutes.

Leviticus 18:26-30

18:26 You yourselves must obey ⁴  my statutes and my regulations and must not do any of these abominations, both the native citizen and the resident foreigner in your midst, ⁵  18:27 for the people who were in the land before you have done all these abominations, ⁶  and the land has become unclean. 18:28 So do not make the land vomit you out because you defile it ⁷  just as it has vomited out the nations ⁸  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. ⁹  18:30 You must obey my charge to not practice any of the abominable statutes ¹⁰  that have been done before you, so that you do not ¹¹  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! ¹²  For everything that is abhorrent ¹³  to him, ¹⁴  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 ¹⁵  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. ¹⁶ 

Deuteronomy 33:2

33:2 He said:

A Historical Review

The Lord came from Sinai

and revealed himself ¹⁷  to Israel ¹⁸  from Seir.

He appeared in splendor ¹⁹  from Mount Paran,

and came forth with ten thousand holy ones. ²⁰ 

With his right hand he gave a fiery law ²¹  to them.

Deuteronomy 33:9

33:9 He said to his father and mother, “I have not seen him,” ²² 

and he did not acknowledge his own brothers

or know his own children,

for they kept your word,

and guarded your covenant.

Psalms 101:3

101:3 I will not even consider doing what is dishonest. ²³ 

I hate doing evil; ²⁴ 

I will have no part of it. ²⁵ 

Psalms 106:35-38

106:35 They mixed in with the nations

and learned their ways. ²⁶ 

106:36 They worshiped ²⁷  their idols,

which became a snare to them. ²⁸ 

106:37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. ²⁹ 

106:38 They shed innocent blood –

the blood of their sons and daughters,

whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.

The land was polluted by bloodshed. ³⁰ 

Ezekiel 16:47

16:47 Have you not copied their behavior ³¹  and practiced their abominable deeds? In a short time ³²  you became even more depraved in all your conduct than they were!

[18:3]  ¹ tn Heb “As the work [or “deed”] of the land of Egypt, which you were dwelling in it, you must not do.”

[18:3]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “and you shall not walk.”

[18:26]  ⁴ 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.

[18:26]  ⁵ tn Heb “the native and the sojourner”; NIV “The native-born and the aliens”; NAB “whether natives or resident aliens.”

[18:27]  ⁶ tn Heb “for all these abominations the men of the land who were before you have done.”

[18:28]  ⁷ tn Heb “And the land will not vomit you out in your defiling it.”

[18:28]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ sn Regarding the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.

[18:30]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to not do from the statutes of the detestable acts.”

[18:30]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and you will not.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

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

[12:31]  ¹³ tn See note on this term at Deut 7:25.

[12:31]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “every abomination of the Lord.” See note on the word “his” in v. 27.

[12:2]  ¹⁵ 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.”

[12:2]  ¹⁶ 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.

[33:2]  ¹⁷ tn Or “rose like the sun” (NCV, TEV).

[33:2]  ¹⁸ tc Heb “to him.” The LXX reads “to us” (לָנוּ [lanu] for לָמוֹ [lamo]), the reading of the MT is acceptable since it no doubt has in mind Israel as a collective singular.

[33:2]  ¹⁹ tn Or “he shone forth” (NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[33:2]  ²⁰ tc With slight alteration (מִמְרִבַת קָדֵשׁ [mimrivat qadesh] for the MT’s מֵרִבְבֹת קֹדֶשׁ [merivvot qodesh]) the translation would be “from Meribah Kadesh” (cf. NAB, NLT; see Deut 32:51). However, the language of holy war in the immediate context favors the reading of the MT, which views the Lord as accompanied by angelic hosts.

[33:2]  ²¹ tc The mispointed Hebrew term אֵשְׁדָּת (’eshdat) should perhaps be construed as אֵשְׁהַת (’eshhat) with Smr.

[33:9]  ²² sn This statement no doubt alludes to the Levites’ destruction of their own fellow tribesmen following the golden calf incident (Exod 32:25-29).

[101:3]  ²³ tn Heb “I will not set before my eyes a thing of worthlessness.”

[101:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the doing of swerving [deeds] I hate.” The Hebrew term סֵטִים (setim) is probably an alternate spelling of שֵׂטִים (setim), which appears in many medieval Hebrew mss. The form appears to be derived from a verbal root שׂוּט (sut, “to fall away; to swerve”; see Ps 40:4).

[101:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “it [i.e., the doing of evil deeds] does not cling to me.”

[106:35]  ²⁶ tn Heb “their deeds.”

[106:36]  ²⁷ tn Or “served.”

[106:36]  ²⁸ sn Became a snare. See Exod 23:33; Judg 2:3.

[106:37]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew term שֵׁדִים (shedim, “demons”) occurs only here and in Deut 32:17. Some type of lesser deity is probably in view.

[106:38]  ³⁰ sn Num 35:33-34 explains that bloodshed defiles a land.

[16:47]  ³¹ tn Heb “walked in their ways.”

[16:47]  ³² tn The Hebrew expression has a temporal meaning as illustrated by the use of the phrase in 2 Chr 12:7.