Exodus 23

1 Do not let a false statement go further; do not make an agreement with evil-doers to be a false witness.

Thou shalt not accept a false report; extend not thy hand to the wicked, to be an unrighteous witness.

2 Do not be moved to do wrong by the general opinion, or give the support of your words to a wrong decision:

Thou shalt not follow the multitude for evil; neither shalt thou answer in a cause, to go after the multitude to pervert [judgment].

3 But, on the other hand, do not be turned from what is right in order to give support to a poor man's cause.

Neither shalt thou favour a poor man in his cause.

4 If you come across the ox or the ass of one who is no friend to you wandering from its way, you are to take it back to him.

— If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt certainly bring it back to him.

5 If you see the ass of one who has no love for you bent down to the earth under the weight which is put on it, you are to come to its help, even against your desire.

If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under its burden, beware of leaving [it] to him: thou shalt certainly loosen [it] with him.

6 Let no wrong decisions be given in the poor man's cause.

Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of thy poor in his cause.

7 Keep yourselves far from any false business; never let the upright or him who has done no wrong be put to death: for I will make the evil-doer responsible for his sin.

Thou shalt keep far from the cause of falsehood; and the innocent and righteous slay not; for I will not justify the wicked.

8 Take no rewards in a cause: for rewards make blind those who have eyes to see, and make the decisions of the upright false.

And thou shalt take no bribe; for the bribe blindeth those whose eyes are open, and perverteth the words of the righteous.

9 Do not be hard on the man from a strange country who is living among you; for you have had experience of the feelings of one who is far from the land of his birth, because you yourselves were living in Egypt, in a strange land.

And the stranger thou shalt not oppress; for ye know the spirit of the stranger, for ye have been strangers in the land of Egypt.

10 For six years put seed into your fields and get in the increase;

And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and gather in its produce;

11 But in the seventh year let the land have a rest and be unplanted; so that the poor may have food from it: and let the beasts of the field take the rest. Do the same with your vine-gardens and your olive-trees.

but in the seventh thou shalt let it rest and lie [fallow], that the poor of thy people may eat [of it]; and what they leave, the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thine olive-tree.

12 For six days do your work, and on the seventh day keep the Sabbath; so that your ox and your ass may have rest, together with the son of your servant and the man from a strange land living among you.

— Six days thou shalt do thy work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest; that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger may be refreshed.

13 Take note of all these things which I have said to you, and let not the names of other gods come into your minds or from your lips.

And ye shall be on your guard as to everything that I have said unto you; and shall make no mention of the name of other gods — it shall not be heard in thy mouth.

14 Three times in the year you are to keep a feast to me.

Thrice in the year thou shalt celebrate a feast to me.

15 You are to keep the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days let your bread be without leaven, as I gave you orders, at the regular time in the month Abib (for in it you came out of Egypt); and let no one come before me without an offering:

Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread, (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I have commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt; and none shall appear in my presence empty; )

16 And the feast of the grain-cutting, the first-fruits of your planted fields: and the feast at the start of the year, when you have got in all the fruit from your fields.

and the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labours which thou hast sown in the field, and the feast of in-gathering, at the end of the year, when thou gatherest in thy labours out of the field.

17 Three times in the year let all your males come before the Lord God.

Three times in the year all thy males shall appear in the presence of the Lord Jehovah.

18 Do not give the blood of my offering with leavened bread; and do not let the fat of my feast be kept all night till the morning.

Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my feast remain all night until the morning.

19 The best of the first-fruits of your land are to be taken into the house of the Lord your God. The young goat is not to be cooked in its mother's milk.

The first of the first-fruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of Jehovah thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

20 See, I am sending an angel before you, to keep you on your way and to be your guide into the place which I have made ready for you.

Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee to the place that I have prepared.

21 Give attention to him and give ear to his voice; do not go against him; for your wrongdoing will not be overlooked by him, because my name is in him.

Be careful in his presence, and hearken unto his voice: do not provoke him, for he will not forgive your transgressions; for my name is in him.

22 But if you truly give ear to his voice, and do whatever I say, then I will be against those who are against you, fighting those who are fighting you.

But if thou shalt diligently hearken unto his voice, and do all that I shall say, then I will be an enemy to thine enemies, and an adversary to thine adversaries.

23 And my angel will go before you, guiding you into the land of the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Canaanite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, and they will be cut off by my hand.

For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off.

24 Do not go down on your faces and give worship to their gods, or do as they do; but overcome them completely, and let their pillars be broken down.

Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their deeds; but thou shalt utterly destroy them, and utterly shatter their statues.

25 And give worship to the Lord your God, who will send his blessing on your bread and on your water; and I will take all disease away from among you.

And ye shall serve Jehovah your God; and he shall bless thy bread and thy water; and I will take sickness away from thy midst.

26 All your animals will give birth without loss, not one will be without young in all your land; I will give you a full measure of life.

There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land; the number of thy days will I fulfil.

27 I will send my fear before you, putting to flight all the people to whom you come; all those who are against you will go in flight, turning their backs before you.

I will send my fear before thee, and confound every people to which thou comest, and will make all thine enemies turn their back to thee.

28 I will send hornets before you, driving out the Hivite and the Canaanite and the Hittite before your face.

And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

29 I will not send them all out in one year, for fear that their land may become waste, and the beasts of the field be increased overmuch against you.

I will not drive them out from before thee in one year: lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.

30 Little by little I will send them away before you, till your numbers are increased and you take up your heritage in the land.

By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou art fruitful, and possess the land.

31 I will let the limits of your land be from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the waste land to the river Euphrates: for I will give the people of those lands into your power; and you will send them out before you.

And I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness unto the river; for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, that thou mayest dispossess them from before thee.

32 Make no agreement with them or with their gods.

Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.

33 Let them not go on living in your land, or they will make you do evil against me: for if you give worship to their gods, it will certainly be a cause of sin to you.

They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me; for if thou serve their gods, it is sure to be a snare unto thee.