World English Bible
Deuteronomy 20:18
“that they not teach you to do after all their abominations, which they have done to their gods; so would you sin against Yahweh your God.”
Verse in context — Deuteronomy 20
But of the cities of these peoples, that Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes;
but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; as Yahweh your God has commanded you;
that they not teach you to do after all their abominations, which they have done to their gods; so would you sin against Yahweh your God.
When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them; for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down; for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged of you?
Only the trees of which you know that they are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down; and you shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it fall.
About Deuteronomy
Moses’ final speeches, reminding Israel of God’s law before entering the Promised Land.
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