Deuteronomy 12:31
Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God forbids Israel to worship God in the manner of the surrounding nations, especially the nations they were to dispossess. Their ways of serving their gods are declared to be every abomination to the Lord, which He hates. The specific abomination named is that they burned even their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods as sacrifices.
The fire rite involved making children pass through fire to idols from the belief that human offerings secured divine favor. A child who came through unharmed was regarded as specially favored by the idols. A child who was burned was regarded as proof of the idols' anger and was sacrificed to appease them. The Egyptians practiced this fiery ordeal. In times of great apostasy the Israelites themselves practiced these abominations to some extent.
The prohibition belongs to God's command to obey His instructions without adding to them or taking from them. By avoiding the customs of the nations Israel would remain distinct and retain the land. The warning applies against making images connected with false worship and against representing sacred truths by religious pictures and likenesses. Such images exert a perverting influence, depart from God's Word, and distort the truth.