23 And YOU must not walk in the statutes of the nations whom I am sending out from before YOU,+ because they have done all these things and I abhor them.+

17 but we shall positively do every word that has gone forth from our mouth,+ in order to make sacrificial smoke to the ‘queen of the heavens’*+ and to pour* out to her drink offerings,+ just as we ourselves+ and our forefathers,+ our kings+ and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, when we used to be satisfied with bread and to be well off, and we did not see any calamity at all.+