Exodus 23

1 “You shall not accept a lying voice. Neither shall you join your hand so as to give false testimony on behalf of the impious.

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

2 You shall not follow the crowd in doing evil. Neither shall you go astray in judgment, by agreeing with the majority opinion, apart from the truth.

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

3 Likewise, you shall not show pity in judgment of the poor.

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

4 If you come across an ox or a donkey of your enemy, which has gone astray, lead it back to him.

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.

5 If you see the donkey of one who hates you, fallen under its burden, you shall not pass by without lifting it up with him.

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.

6 You shall not deviate in judgment of the poor.

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

7 You shall flee from lies. The innocent and the just you shall not kill. For I shun the impious.

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.

8 Neither shall you accept bribes, which blind even the prudent and subvert the words of the just.

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

9 You shall not harass a sojourner, for you know the life of a newcomer. For you yourselves also were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

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.

10 For six years, you shall sow your land and gather its produce.

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

11 But in the seventh year, you shall release it and cause it to rest, so that the poor of your people may eat. And whatever remains, let the beasts of the field eat it. So shall you do with your vineyard and your olive grove.

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.

12 For six days, you shall work. On the seventh day, you shall cease, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the newcomer and the son of your handmaid may be refreshed.

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.

13 Preserve all that I have said to you. And by the names of foreign gods you shall not swear; neither shall these be heard from your mouth.

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.

14 Three times in each year, you shall celebrate feasts to me.

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

15 You shall keep the solemnity of unleavened bread. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, just as I instructed you, at the time of the month of new grain, when you departed from Egypt. You shall not appear empty-handed in my sight,

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:

16 for it is the solemnity of the harvest of the first-fruits of your work, of whatever you have sown in the field. Likewise, it is a solemnity at the end of the season, when you will have gathered in all your crops from the field.

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.

17 Three times a year, all your males shall appear before the Lord your God.

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

18 You shall not immolate the blood of my victim over leaven, nor shall the fat of my solemnity remain until morning.

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.

19 You shall carry the first grain of the land to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not cook a young goat in the milk of its mother.

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.

20 Behold, I will send my Angel, who will go before you, and preserve you on your journey, and lead you into the place that I have prepared.

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.

21 Heed him, and hear his voice, and do not hold him in disregard. For he will not release you when you have sinned, and my name is in him.

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.

22 But if you listen to his voice and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies, and I will afflict those who afflict you.

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.

23 And my Angel will go before you, and he will bring you to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, whom I will crush.

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.

24 You shall not adore their gods, nor worship them. You shall not do their works, but you shall destroy them and break apart their statues.

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.

25 And you shall serve the Lord your God, so that I may bless your bread and your waters, and so that I may take away sickness from your midst.

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.

26 There will not be fruitless or barren ones in your land. I will fill up the number of your days.

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.

27 I will send my terror to run ahead of you, and I will kill all the people to whom you will enter. And I will turn the backs of all your enemies before you,

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.

28 sending wasps ahead, so that they will put to flight the Hivite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, before you enter.

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

29 I will not cast them out from your face in one year, lest the land be reduced to a wilderness and the wild beasts increase against you.

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.

30 I will expel them little by little from your sight, until you have expanded and may possess the land.

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

31 Then I will set your limits to be from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Palestinians, and from the desert all the way to the river. I will deliver into your hands the inhabitants of the land, and I will cast them out from your sight.

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.

32 You shall not enter into a pact with them, nor with their gods.

Make no agreement with them or with their gods.

33 They may not live on your land, lest perhaps they may cause you to sin against me, if you serve their gods, which certainly would be a temptation for you.”

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.