Deuteronomy 12:30

be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”

Berean Standard Bible

Follow its threads on the canvas →

Study note

Setting — Moses addresses Israel on the plains of Moab as they prepare to cross into Canaan. He issues the command immediately after describing God's removal of the resident nations and Israel's subsequent settlement in their land.

The words — The Hebrew הִשָּׁמֵר (hiššāmer) commands "take heed," while תִּנָּקֵשׁ (tinnaqēš) literally means "you should be ensnared." The text places these terms in a negative purpose clause to forbid passive absorption of foreign religious patterns.

The thread — The prohibition against adopting Gentile worship customs appears in Jeremiah 10:2 and Ezekiel 20:32. These passages repeat the boundary against learning or imitating the religious practices of surrounding nations.

Why it lands — The text commands active refusal to inquire about or replicate the worship methods of defeated peoples. Readers must maintain distinct ritual boundaries regardless of territorial conquest or cultural proximity.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.

Cross-references

Jeremiah 10:2 This is what the LORD says: “Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by the signs in the heavens, though the nations themselves are terrified by them.
Ezekiel 20:32 When you say, ‘Let us be like the nations, like the peoples of the lands, serving wood and stone,’ what you have in mind will never come to pass.
Exodus 23:31 And I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the Euphrates. For I will deliver the inhabitants into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.
Deuteronomy 7:16 You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
Psalms 106:34 They did not destroy the peoples as the LORD had commanded them,
Ezekiel 20:28 When I brought them into the land that I swore to give them and they saw any high hill or leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices, presented offerings that provoked Me, sent up their fragrant incense, and poured out their drink offerings.
Ephesians 4:17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
Leviticus 18:3 You must not follow the practices of the land of Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not follow the practices of the land of Canaan, into which I am bringing you. You must not walk in their customs.
Numbers 33:52 you must drive out before you all the inhabitants of the land, destroy all their carved images and cast idols, and demolish all their high places.
Judges 2:2 and you are not to make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall tear down their altars.’ Yet you have not obeyed My voice. What is this you have done?