Bible Strands
Leviticus 18:27
For the men who were in the land before you committed all these abominations, and the land has become defiled.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites in the wilderness, immediately following the prohibition against adopting Canaanite customs. He explains the historical precedent for the impending displacement of the current inhabitants.
The words — The Hebrew term תּוֹעֵבֹת (to'evot) translates literally as "abominations," referring to the specific ritual acts just listed. The verb עָשׂוּ (asu) means "they did," explicitly attributing the land's defilement to the active commission of these acts by the former population.
The thread — The connection between pagan practice and land defilement appears in Leviticus 18:24, where the expelled nations are blamed for identical sins. The warning against adopting foreign religious habits recurs in Deuteronomy 20:18 and Deuteronomy 23:18, which prohibit integrating detestable practices and idolatrous revenues into Israel's worship.
Why it lands — The text states that collective sin physically contaminates a territory, resulting in divine expulsion. It requires the reader to actively reject established pagan customs to avoid sharing the former inhabitants' fate.
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 these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)
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 20:18 so that they cannot teach you to do all the detestable things they do for their gods, and so cause you to sin against the LORD your God.
- Deuteronomy 23:18 You must not bring the wages of a prostitute, whether female or male, into the house of the LORD your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the LORD your God.
- Deuteronomy 25:16 For everyone who behaves dishonestly in regard to these things is detestable to the LORD your God.
- Deuteronomy 27:15 ‘Cursed is the man who makes a carved idol or molten image—an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of a craftsman—and sets it up in secret.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
- 1 Kings 14:24 There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land. They imitated all the abominations of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
- 2 Kings 16:3 Instead, he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
- 2 Kings 21:2 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD by following the abominations of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
- 2 Chronicles 36:14 Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, following all the abominations of the nations, and they defiled the house of the LORD, which He had consecrated in Jerusalem.
- Ezekiel 16:50 Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them, as you have seen.