He ¹  shouted with a powerful voice: “Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great! She ²  has become a lair for demons, a haunt ³  for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detested beast. ⁴ 

You must not sacrifice to him ¹  a bull or sheep that has a blemish or any other defect, because that is considered offensive ²  to the Lord your God.

When it is reported to you and you hear about it, you must investigate carefully. If it is indeed true that such a disgraceful thing ¹  is being done in Israel,

When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations.

so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship ¹  their gods, causing you to sin against the Lord your God.

You must not hate an Edomite, for he is your relative; ¹  you must not hate an Egyptian, for you lived as a foreigner ²  in his land.

So I went in and looked. I noticed every figure ¹  of creeping thing and beast – detestable images ²  – and every idol of the house of Israel, engraved on the wall all around. ³ 

but ¹  nothing ritually unclean ²  will ever enter into it, nor anyone who does what is detestable ³  or practices falsehood, ⁴  but only those whose names ⁵  are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the wilderness. I viewed your ancestors ¹  like an early fig on a fig tree in its first season. Then they came to Baal-Peor and they dedicated themselves to shame – they became as detestable as what they loved.

But Moses said, “That would not be the right thing to do, ¹  for the sacrifices we make ²  to the Lord our God would be an abomination ³  to the Egyptians. ⁴  If we make sacrifices that are an abomination to the Egyptians right before their eyes, ⁵  will they not stone us? ⁶ 

And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, for there is no bread or water, and we ¹  detest this worthless ²  food.”

The Lord says, “I have rejected them because ¹  the people of Judah have done what I consider evil. ²  They have set up their disgusting idols in the temple ³  which I have claimed for my own ⁴  and have defiled it.

When a person touches anything unclean (whether human uncleanness, or an unclean animal, or an unclean detestable creature) ¹  and eats some of the meat of the peace offering sacrifice which belongs to the Lord, that person will be cut off from his people.’” ² 

Therefore you must distinguish ¹  between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean, and you must not make yourselves detestable by means of an animal or bird or anything that creeps on the ground – creatures ²  I have distinguished for you as unclean. ³ 

The Lord abhors ¹  differing weights, and dishonest scales are wicked. ² 

A foolish scheme ¹  is sin, and the scorner is an abomination to people. ² 

This is what the sovereign Lord says: Because your lust ¹  was poured out and your nakedness was uncovered in your prostitution with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children you have given to them,

But they rebelled against me, and refused to listen to me; no one got rid of their detestable idols, ¹  nor did they abandon the idols of Egypt. Then I decided to pour out ²  my rage on them and fully vent my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.

that we should be saved ¹  from our enemies, ²  and from the hand of all who hate us.

Therefore do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, ¹  if the world hates you. ²