Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 18:12
For whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD. And because of these detestable things, the LORD your God is driving out the nations before you.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses Israel on the plains of Moab, positioned between a list of forbidden occult practices and a command to live blamelessly before God.
The words — תוֹעֲבָה (to'evah) means abomination or detestable thing, and עֹשֶׂה (oseh) refers to the one who actively practices it.
The thread — The link between these practices and the expulsion of the land’s inhabitants runs through Leviticus 18:24 and Leviticus 18:27, while Deuteronomy 9:4 explicitly states that their removal is not because of Israel’s righteousness.
Why it lands — The text demands the rejection of divination and spiritism, grounding the conquest of Canaan in God’s judgment of foreign practices rather than human merit.
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
For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 18:24 Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves.
- Deuteronomy 9:4 When the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land.” Rather, the LORD is driving out these nations before you because of their wickedness.
- Leviticus 18:27 For the men who were in the land before you committed all these abominations, and the land has become defiled.