Exodus 23

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

You shall not receive a vain report: you shall not agree with the unjust [man] to become an unjust witness.

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

You shall not associate with the multitude for evil; you shall not join yourself with a multitude to turn aside with the majority so as to shut out 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.

And you shall not spare a poor man in judgment.

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.

And if you meet your enemy's ox or his ass going astray, you shall turn them back and restore them 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.

And if you see your enemy's ass fallen under its burden, you shall not pass by it, but shall help to raise it with him.

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

You shall not wrest the sentence of the poor in his judgment.

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.

You shall abstain from every unjust thing: you shall not kill the innocent and just, and you shall not justify the wicked for gifts.

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 you shall not receive gifts; for gifts blind the eyes of the seeing, and corrupt just words.

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 you shall not afflict a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger; for you were yourselves strangers in the land of Egypt.

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

Six years you shall sow your land, and gather in the fruits of it.

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 year you shall let it rest, and leave it, and the poor of your nation shall feed; and the wild beasts of the field shall eat that which remains: thus shall you do to your vineyard and to your oliveyard.

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 shall you do your works, and on the seventh day there shall be rest, that your ox and your ass may rest, and that the son of your maidservant 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.

Observe all things whatever I have commanded you; and you shall make no mention of the name of other gods, neither shall they be heard out of your mouth.

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

Keep you a feast to me three times in the year.

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:

Take heed to keep the feast of unleavened bread: seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I charged you at the season of the month of new [corn], for in it you came out of Egypt: you shall not appear before me 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 you shall keep the feast of the harvest of first fruits of your labors, whatever you shall have sown in your field, and the feast of completion at the end of the year in the gathering in of your fruits out of your field.

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

Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord your God.

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.

For when I shall have cast out the nations from before you, and shall have widened your borders, you shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, neither must the fat of my feast abide till 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.

You shall bring the first-offerings of the first fruits of your land into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not seethe a lamb 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.

And, behold, I send my angel before your face, that he may keep you in the way, that he may bring you into the land which I have prepared for you.

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.

Take heed to yourself and listen to him, and disobey him not; for he will not give way to you, for my name is on 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.

If you will indeed hear my voice, and if you will do all the things I shall charge you with, and keep my covenant, you shall be to me a peculiar people above all nations, for the whole earth is mine; and you shall be to me a royal priesthood, and a holy nation: these words shall you speak to the children of Israel, If you shall indeed hear my voice, and do all the things I shall tell you, I will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary to your 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 my angel shall go as your leader, and shall bring you to the Amorite, and Chettite, and Pherezite, and Chananite, and Gergesite, and Evite, and Jebusite, and I will destroy them.

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.

You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them: you shall not do according to their works, but shall utterly destroy them, and break to pieces their pillars.

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 you shall serve the Lord your God, and I will bless your bread and your wine and your water, and I will turn away sickness from you.

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 not be on your land one that is impotent or barren. I will surely fulfil the number of your days.

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.

And I will send terror before you, and I will strike with amazement all the nations to which you shall come, and I will make all your enemies to flee.

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 you, and you shall cast out the Amorites and the Evites, and the Chananites and the Chettites from you.

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 cast them out in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the beasts of the field multiply against you.

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 cast them out from before you, until you shall be increased and inherit the earth.

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 your borders from the Red Sea, to the sea of the Phylistines, and from the wilderness to the great river Euphrates; and I will give into your hand those that dwell in the land, and will cast them out from you.

32 Make no agreement with them or with their gods.

You shall make no covenant with them and 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.

And they shall not dwell in your land, lest they cause you to sin against me; for if you should serve their gods, these will be an offense to you.