Exodus 23
1 Thou shalt not receive the voice of a lie: neither shalt thou join thy hand to bear false witness for a wicked person.
Do not let a false statement go further; do not make an agreement with evil-doers to be a false witness.
2 Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do evil: neither shalt thou yield in judgment, to the opinion of the most part, to stray 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 Neither shalt thou favour a poor man in judgment.
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 thou meet thy enemy’s ox or ass going astray, bring 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 thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lie underneath his burden, thou shalt not pass by, but shalt lift him 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 Thou shalt not go aside in the poor man’s judgment.
Let no wrong decisions be given in the poor man's cause.
7 Thou shalt fly lying. The innocent and just person thou shalt not put to death: because I abhor the wicked.
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 shalt thou take bribes, which even blind the wise, and pervert 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 Thou shalt not molest a stranger, for you know the hearts of strangers: for you also were strangers 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 Six years thou shalt sow thy ground, and shalt gather the corn thereof.
For six years put seed into your fields and get in the increase;
11 But the seventh year thou shalt let it alone, and suffer it to rest, that the poor of thy people may eat, and whatsoever shall be left, let the beasts of the field eat it: so shalt thou do with thy vineyard and thy oliveyard.
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 Six days thou shalt work: the seventh day thou shalt cease, that thy ox and thy ass may rest: and the son of thy handmaid and the stranger 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 Keep all things that I have said to you. And by the name of strange gods you shall not swear, neither shall it be heard out of 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 every year you shall celebrate feasts to me.
Three times in the year you are to keep a feast to me.
15 Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month of new corn, when thou didst come forth out of Egypt: thou shalt not appear empty before me.
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 And the feast of the harvest of the firstfruits of thy work, whatsoever thou hast sown in the field. The feast also in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in all thy corn out of 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 Thrice a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God.
Three times in the year let all your males come before the Lord God.
18 Thou shalt not sacrifice the blood of my victim upon leaven, neither shall the fat of my solemnity remain until the 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 Thou shalt carry the firstfruits of the corn of thy ground to the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in the milk of his dam.
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 shall go before thee, and keep thee in thy journey, and bring thee 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 Take notice of him, and hear his voice, and do not think him one to be contemned: for he will not forgive when thou hast 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 thou wilt hear his voice, and do all that I speak, I will be an enemy to thy enemies, and will afflict them that afflict thee.
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 shall go before thee, and shall bring thee in unto the Amorrhite, and the Hethite, and the Pherezite, and the Chanaanite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite, whom I will destroy.
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 Thou shalt not adore their gods, nor serve them. Thou shalt not do their works, but shalt destroy them, and break 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, that I may bless your bread and your waters, and may take away sickness from the midst of thee.
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 shall not be one fruitless nor barren in thy land: I will fill the number of thy 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 fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come: and will turn the backs of all thy enemies before thee.
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 out hornets before, that shall drive away the Hevite, and the Chanaanite, and the Hethite, before thou come in.
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 thy face in one year: lest the land be brought into a wilderness, and the beasts multiply against thee.
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 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, till thou be increased, and dost 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 And I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea to the sea of the Palestines, and from the desert to the river: I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hands, and will drive them out from before you.
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 Thou shalt not enter into league with them, nor with their gods.
Make no agreement with them or with their gods.
33 Let them not dwell in thy land, lest perhaps thy make thee sin against me, if thou serve their god: which undoubtedly will be a scandal to thee.
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.
