Exodus 23

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

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

2 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.

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.

3 And you shall not spare a poor man in judgment.

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

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

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

5 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.

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.

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

You shall not deviate in judgment of the poor.

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

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

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

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

9 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.

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.

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

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

11 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.

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.

12 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.

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.

13 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.

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.

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

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

15 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.

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,

16 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.

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.

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

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

18 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.

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

19 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.

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.

20 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.

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.

21 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.

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.

22 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.

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.

23 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.

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.

24 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.

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.

25 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.

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.

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

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

27 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.

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,

28 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.

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

29 I will not cast them out in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the beasts of the field multiply against you.

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.

30 By little [and little] I will cast them out from before you, until you shall be increased and inherit the earth.

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

31 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.

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.

32 You shall make no covenant with them and their gods.

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

33 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.

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.”