Exodus 23

1 “You must not spread stories that are lies. You must not help bad people by giving evidence that's malicious.

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

2 Don't follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give evidence in a lawsuit, don't corrupt justice by siding with the majority.

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

3 Don't show favoritism to poor people in their legal cases either.

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 your enemy's ox or donkey that has wandered off, take it back it 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 someone who hates you that has fallen under its load, don't just leave it there. You must stop and help.

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 must not prevent the poor from getting justice in their lawsuits.

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

7 Don't have anything to do with making false accusations. Don't kill the innocent or those who do right, for I won't let the guilty go unpunished.

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 Don't accept bribes, for a bribe blinds those who can see, and undermines the evidence of the honest.

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 Don't abuse foreigners living among you, since you know very well what it's like to be foreigners, for you were once foreigners in 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 you are to sow your land and harvest crops,

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

11 but in the seventh year you are to let it rest and leave it uncultivated, so that poor people may eat what grows naturally from the field and the wild animals can finish what's left. Follow the same procedure for your vineyards and olive groves.

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 You have six days to do your work, but on the seventh day you must stop working, so that your ox and your donkey can rest, and your slaves' families can catch their breath, as well as the foreigners living among you.

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 Make sure to pay attention to everything I've told you. Don't think to call on the names of other gods—you must not even mention them.

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 are to celebrate a feast dedicated to me.

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

15 You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread as I instructed you. You are to eat bread without yeast for seven days at the appropriate time in the month of Abib, because that was the month you left Egypt. No one can come before me without bringing an offering.

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 You are also to observe the Festival of Harvest when you present the firstfruits of the produce from what you've sown in the fields. Lastly you are to observe the Festival of Gathering-In the Harvest at the end of the year, when you gather in the harvest of the rest of 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 Every Israelite male is to come before the Lord God at these three times every year.

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

18 You must not offer the blood of my sacrifices together with anything that contains yeast, and the fat from the offerings presented at my festival must not be left 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 Bring the best firstfruits of your crops to the house of the Lord your God. Don't cook a young goat in its mother's milk.

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 Look, I'm sending an angel ahead of you to protect you on the way and to take you to the place I've prepared for you.

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 Make sure you pay attention to him and do what he says. Don't oppose him, because he won't forgive rebellion, for he carries my authority.

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 However, if you listen to him carefully, and do everything that I tell you, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and I will fight those who fight against 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 For my angel will go ahead of you and take you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.

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 must not bow down to their gods or worship them or follow their pagan practices. No, you must demolish their idols and smash their sacred pillars into pieces.

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 You are to worship the Lord your God, and he will bless your food and water. I will make sure none of you fall sick.

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 No woman will have a miscarriage or be without children. I will make sure you live long lives.

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 terror about me ahead of you which will throw every nation you meet into panic. I will make all your enemies turn and run away.

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 I will send hornets ahead of you to drive out before you the Hivites and Canaanites and Hittites.

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

29 I will not drive them out in just one year, because the land would become desolate and you would have to deal with increased numbers of wild animals.

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 Bit by bit I will drive them out ahead of you, until there are enough of you to take possession of 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 I will fix your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will hand the inhabitants of the land over to you, and you will drive them out.

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 must not make any agreement with them or with their gods.

Make no agreement with them or with their gods.

33 They must not be allowed to stay in your land, otherwise they will lead you to sin against me. For if you worship their gods, they will definitely become a trap 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.