Destroy every nation that the LORD your God places in your power, and do not show them any mercy. Do not worship their gods, for that would be fatal.

I will make the borders of your land extend from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Mediterranean Sea and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give you power over the inhabitants of the land, and you will drive them out as you advance.

Do not let those people live in your country; if you do, they will make you sin against me. If you worship their gods, it will be a fatal trap for you."

Do not follow the practices of the people of Egypt, where you once lived, or of the people in the land of Canaan, where I am now taking you.

you must drive out all the inhabitants of the land. Destroy all their stone and metal idols and all their places of worship.

You must not make any covenant with the people who live in this land. You must tear down their altars.' But you have not done what I told you. You have done just the opposite!

So I tell you now that I will not drive these people out as you advance. They will be your enemies, and you will be trapped by the worship of their gods."

They refused to obey his instructions, they did not keep the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and they disregarded his warnings. They worshiped worthless idols and became worthless themselves, and they followed the customs of the surrounding nations, disobeying the LORD's command not to imitate them.

They did not kill the heathen, as the LORD had commanded them to do,

God's people worshiped idols, and this caused their destruction.

They killed those innocent children, and the land was defiled by those murders.

I brought them to the land I had promised to give them. When they saw the high hills and green trees, they offered sacrifices at all of them. They made me angry by the sacrifices they burned and by the wine they brought as offerings.

He says, "Do not follow the ways of other nations; do not be disturbed by unusual sights in the sky, even though other nations are terrified.

You have made up your minds that you want to be like the other nations, like the people who live in other countries and worship trees and rocks. But that will never be.

Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God---what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.

In the Lord's name, then, I warn you: do not continue to live like the heathen, whose thoughts are worthless

You have spent enough time in the past doing what the heathen like to do. Your lives were spent in indecency, lust, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and the disgusting worship of idols.

And now the heathen are surprised when you do not join them in the same wild and reckless living, and so they insult you.