Among the Canaanites. Before Israel’s entry into Canaan, Jehovah made plain to them the practices and customs of the peoples of Canaan that were detestable to him, and these they were to detest. (Le 18:26-30) Outstanding was their practice of idolatry. God said: “The graven images of their gods you should burn in the fire. You must not desire the silver and the gold upon them, nor indeed take it for yourself, for fear you may be ensnared by it; for it is a thing detestable [thoh·ʽavathʹ] to Jehovah your God. And you must not bring a detestable thing [thoh·ʽe·vahʹ] into your house and actually become a thing devoted to destruction like it. You should thoroughly loathe it and absolutely detest it [wetha·ʽevʹ tetha·ʽavenʹnu], because it is something devoted to destruction.” (De 7:25, 26) Any Israelite guilty of making images for religious worship was to be accursed. (De 27:15) Regardless of the craftsmanship they reflected, such images were to be morally repugnant to God’s people.​—Eze 7:20; compare Isa 44:18-20.

Other practices of the Canaanites to be detested by Israel were: spiritism with its seances, casting of spells, fortune-telling (De 18:9-12), offering children up in fire to their gods (De 12:31; Jer 32:35; 2Ki 16:3),

The Canaanites also practiced “sacred” prostitution by male and female temple prostitutes, but Jehovah prohibited the bringing of “the hire of a harlot or the price of a dog” into his house, “because they are something detestable.”​—De 23:17, 18; 1Ki 14:24.