< 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 receive a false report: put not thy hand with 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 a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause, to incline after many, to wrest 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 countenance 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 thy enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.
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 his burden, and wouldest forbear to unload him, [thou must not do so, but] thou shalt surely unload with him.
6 Let no wrong decisions be given in the poor man's cause.
Thou shalt not wrest 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.
Keep thyself far from a false speech; and him who hath been declared innocent and righteous thou shalt not slay; 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 the clear-sighted, 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 a stranger shalt thou not oppress; for ye know well the spirit of the stranger, seeing ye yourselves were strangers in the land of Egypt.
10 For six years put seed into your fields and get in the increase;
And six years shalt thou sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof;
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 the seventh year shalt thou let it rest and lie still; that the needy of thy people may eat [of it]; and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat: in like manner shalt thou deal with thy vineyard, and with thy 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 shalt thou do thy work, and on the seventh day shalt thou rest; that thy ox and thy ass may repose, and the son of thy hand-maid, 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 in all things that I have said unto you be on your guard; and of the name of other gods ye shall make no mention, it shall not be heard out of thy mouth.
14 Three times in the year you are to keep a feast to me.
Three times shalt thou keep a feast unto me 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:
The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month of Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall 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 the feast of harvest, of the first-fruits of thy labors, which thou hast sown in thy field: and the feast of ingathering, at the conclusion of the year, when thou gatherest in thy labors out of the field.
17 Three times in the year let all your males come before the Lord God.
Three times in the year shall all thy males appear before the Lord, the Eternal.
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 festive sacrifice remain until 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 shalt thou bring unto the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe 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 on the way, and to bring thee unto the place which 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.
Beware of him, and obey his voice, disobey him not; for he will not pardon your transgression, because 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 wilt carefully hearken to his voice, and do all that I shall speak: then will I be an enemy unto thy enemies, and afflict those that afflict thee.
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 before thee, and bring thee in unto the Emorites, 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 overthrow them, and completely break down their statuary images.
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 the Lord your God, and he will bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will remove sickness from the midst of thee.
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 be no one casting her children, nor a barren woman, in thy land; the number of thy days I will make full.
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.
My terror will I send before thee, and will bring in confusion all the people to which thou shalt come; and I will make all thy enemies turn their back unto 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, and they 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.
Little by little will I drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased and canst 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 unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river; for I will deliver into your hand the inhabitants of the land, and thou shalt drive them out before thee.
32 Make no agreement with them or with their gods.
Thou shalt not make a 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 cause thee to sin against me; for thou mightest [be led to] serve their gods, and this would surely be a snare unto thee.