I have chosen him in order that he may command his sons and his descendants to obey me and to do what is right and just. If they do, I will do everything for him that I have promised."

If you are not willing to serve him, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your ancestors worshiped in Mesopotamia or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are now living. As for my family and me, we will serve the LORD."

My conduct will be faultless. When will you come to me? I will live a pure life in my house

I will not be dishonest and will have no dealings with evil.

I will approve of those who are faithful to God and will let them live in my palace. Those who are completely honest will be allowed to serve me.

Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and during his absence Rachel stole the household gods that belonged to her father.

Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in a camel's saddlebag and was sitting on them. Laban searched through the whole tent, but did not find them.

"Worship no god but me.

"Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth.

"Listen to everything that I, the LORD, have said to you. Do not pray to other gods; do not even mention their names.

" 'Worship no god but me.

Do not worship other gods, any of the gods of the peoples around you.

Burn their idols. Do not desire the silver or gold that is on them, and do not take it for yourselves. If you do, that will be fatal, because the LORD hates idolatry.

but a curse, if you disobey these commands and turn away to worship other gods that you have never worshiped before.

Their idolatry made the LORD jealous; the evil they did made him angry.

and then you will not associate with these peoples left among you or speak the names of their gods or use those names in taking vows or worship those gods or bow down to them.

Joshua said to all the people, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, has to say: 'Long ago your ancestors lived on the other side of the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. One of those ancestors was Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor.

and if you leave him to serve foreign gods, he will turn against you and punish you. He will destroy you, even though he was good to you before."

"Then get rid of those foreign gods that you have," he demanded, "and pledge your loyalty to the LORD, the God of Israel."

So they got rid of their foreign gods and worshiped the LORD; and he became troubled over Israel's distress.

So Naomi said to her, "Ruth, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Go back home with her."

Samuel said to the people of Israel, "If you are going to turn to the LORD with all your hearts, you must get rid of all the foreign gods and the images of the goddess Astarte. Dedicate yourselves completely to the LORD and worship only him, and he will rescue you from the power of the Philistines."

There is no other nation on earth like Israel, whom you rescued from slavery to make them your own people. The great and wonderful things you did for them have spread your fame throughout the world. You drove out other nations and their gods as your people advanced, the people whom you set free from Egypt to be your own.

But the people who settled in Samaria continued to make their own idols, and they placed them in the shrines that the Israelites had built. Each different group made idols in the cities they were living in:

The gods of all other nations are only idols, but the LORD created the heavens.

The LORD asked, "Why should I forgive the sins of my people? They have abandoned me and have worshiped gods that are not real. I fed my people until they were full, but they committed adultery and spent their time with prostitutes.

Can people make their own gods? No, if they did, those would not really be gods."

and praised gods made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

Now, you can see and hear for yourselves what this fellow Paul is doing. He says that hand-made gods are not gods at all, and he has succeeded in convincing many people, both here in Ephesus and in nearly the whole province of Asia.

nor to worship idols, as some of them did. As the scripture says, "The people sat down to a feast which turned into an orgy of drinking and sex."

How can Christ and the Devil agree? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

And so the Lord says, "You must leave them and separate yourselves from them. Have nothing to do with what is unclean, and I will accept you.

In the past you did not know God, and so you were slaves of beings who are not gods.

While Jacob was living in that land, Reuben had sexual intercourse with Bilhah, one of his father's concubines; Jacob heard about it and was furious. Jacob had twelve sons.

When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, who was chief of that region, saw her, he took her and raped her.

All the citizens of the city agreed with what Hamor and Shechem proposed, and all the males were circumcised.

Three days later, when the men were still sore from their circumcision, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, took their swords, went into the city without arousing suspicion, and killed all the men,

and the LORD said to him, "Go to the people and tell them to spend today and tomorrow purifying themselves for worship. They must wash their clothes

Then Moses came down the mountain and told the people to get ready for worship. So they washed their clothes,

Anyone who touches his bed

If they do not, they must suffer the consequences.

On the seventh day you must wash your clothes; then you will be ritually clean and will be permitted to enter the camp."

Elisha sent a servant out to tell him to go and wash himself seven times in the Jordan River, and he would be completely cured of his disease.

Besides, aren't the rivers Abana and Pharpar, back in Damascus, better than any river in Israel? I could have washed in them and been cured!"

His servants went up to him and said, "Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it. Now why can't you just wash yourself, as he said, and be cured?"

The morning after each feast, Job would get up early and offer sacrifices for each of his children in order to purify them. He always did this because he thought that one of them might have sinned by insulting God unintentionally.

Wash away all my evil and make me clean from my sin!

Remove my sin, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Be careful about going to the Temple. It is better to go there to learn than to offer sacrifices like foolish people who don't know right from wrong.

Wash yourselves clean. Stop all this evil that I see you doing. Yes, stop doing evil

Be sure to leave Babylonia, all you that carry the Temple equipment. Touch no forbidden thing; keep yourselves holy and leave.

He has seen you do the things he hates. He has seen you go after pagan gods on the hills and in the fields, like a man lusting after his neighbor's wife or like a stallion after a mare. People of Jerusalem, you are doomed! When will you ever be pure?

Give up all the evil you have been doing, and get yourselves new minds and hearts. Why do you Israelites want to die?

I told them to throw away the disgusting idols they loved and not to make themselves unclean with the false gods of Egypt, because I am the LORD their God.

I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you.

Jesus said, "Those who have taken a bath are completely clean and do not have to wash themselves, except for their feet. All of you are clean---all except one."

(Jesus already knew who was going to betray him; that is why he said, "All of you, except one, are clean.")

All these promises are made to us, my dear friends. So then, let us purify ourselves from everything that makes body or soul unclean, and let us be completely holy by living in awe of God.

So let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, with hearts that have been purified from a guilty conscience and with bodies washed with clean water.

Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites!

Rid yourselves, then, of all evil; no more lying or hypocrisy or jealousy or insulting language.

Be like newborn babies, always thirsty for the pure spiritual milk, so that by drinking it you may grow up and be saved.

save others by snatching them out of the fire; and to others show mercy mixed with fear, but hate their very clothes, stained by their sinful lusts.