¹⁵ They rejected his decrees and the covenant^(A) he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols^(B) and themselves became worthless.^(C) They imitated the nations^(D) around them although the Lord had ordered them, “Do not do as they do.”

⁵ This is what the Lord says:

Instructions for Christian Living

¹⁷ So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer^(A) live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.^(B)