Deuteronomy 12:30

Temptation Praise and worship Obedience

²⁸ Be careful to obey all these things I command you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God.

²⁹ When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations you are entering to dispossess, and you drive them out and live in their land,

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.”

³¹ You must not worship the LORD your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

³² See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.

Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: 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.”
KJV: 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.
WEB: be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”
ASV: take heed to thyself that thou be not ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How do these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
DARBY: take heed to thyself that thou be not ensnared [to follow] after them, after that they are destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
BLB: take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, “How did these nations serve their gods, and I also will do likewise?”

ÅB: da vokt deg at du ikke lar deg dåre og følger i deres spor, etter at de er utryddet for deg, og at du ikke spør etter deres guder og sier: Hvordan tjente disse folk sine guder? Slik vil også jeg gjøre.
OTB: vær forsiktig så dere ikke blir fanget ved å spørre om deres guder, og si: "Hvordan tjener disse folkene sine guder? Vi vil gjøre det samme."
B1930: da vokt dig at du ikke lar dig dåre og følger i deres spor, efterat de er utryddet for dig, og at du ikke spør efter deres guder og sier: Hvorledes tjente disse folk sine guder? Således vil også jeg gjøre.

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

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.
Read in context
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.
Read in context
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.
Read in context
Psalms 106:34–38
They did not destroy the peoples as the LORD had commanded them,
Read in context
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.
Read in context
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.
Read in context
Exodus 23:31–33
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.
Read in context
Judges 2:2–3
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?
Read in context