For all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. The historical grounding: the Canaanites who preceded Israel in the land practiced these things and defiled the land. The historical statement grounds the prohibition in observable consequence: the land's defilement is the evidence that these practices are incompatible with the covenant community's habitation. The history of the land is the warning for its new inhabitants.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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