Exodus 23

1 You do not lift up a vain report; you do not put your hand with a wicked man to be a violent witness.

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

2 You are not after many to [do] evil, nor do you testify concerning a strife, to turn aside after many to cause [others] to turn aside;

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

3 and you do not honor a poor man in his strife.

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 When you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you certainly turn 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 when you see the donkey of him who is hating you crouching under its burden, then you have ceased from leaving [it] to it—you certainly leave [it] 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 do not turn aside the judgment of your poor in his strife;

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

7 you keep far off from a false matter, and you do not slay an innocent and righteous man; for I do not justify a wicked man.

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 And you do not take a bribe, for the bribe binds the open-[eyed] and perverts the words of the righteous.

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 And you do not oppress a sojourner, since you have known the soul of the sojourner, for you have been 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 And [for] six years you sow your land and have gathered its increase;

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

11 and [in] the seventh you release it, and have left it, and the needy of your people have eaten, and the beast of the field eats their remainder; so you do to your vineyard [and] to your olive-yard.

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 you do your work, and on the seventh day you rest, so that your ox and your donkey rest, and the son of your handmaid and the sojourner is 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 and in all that which I have said to you—take heed; and you do not mention the name of other gods; it is not heard on 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 You keep a celebration to Me three times in a year:

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

15 you keep the Celebration of Unleavened Things (you eat unleavened things [for] seven days as I have commanded you, at the time appointed [in] the month of Abib; for in it you have come forth out of Egypt, and you do not appear [in] My presence empty);

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 Celebration of Harvest, the first-fruits of your works which you sow in the field; and the Celebration of the Ingathering in the outgoing of the year, in your gathering your works 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 Three times in a year all your males appear before [the] face of the Lord YHWH.

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

18 You do not sacrifice the blood of My sacrifice on a fermented thing, and the fat of My festival does not 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 the beginning of the first-fruits of your ground you bring into the house of your God YHWH; you do not boil a kid 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 Behold, I am sending a Messenger before you to keep you in the way, and to bring you to the place which 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 be watchful because of His presence, and listen to His voice, do not rebel against Him, for He does not bear with your transgression, for My Name [is] in His heart;

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 for if you listen diligently to His voice, and have done all that which I speak, then I have been at enmity with your enemies, and have distressed those distressing 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 Messenger goes before you, and has brought you to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, and I have cut them off.

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 do not bow yourself to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their doings, but utterly devote them, and thoroughly break their standing pillars.

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 have served your God YHWH, and He has blessed your bread and your water, and I have turned aside sickness from your heart;

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 is not a miscarrying and barren one in your land; I fulfill 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 send My terror before you, and I have put to death all the people among whom you come, and I have given the neck of all your enemies to 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 And I have sent the hornet before you, and it has cast out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you;

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

29 I do not cast them out from before you in one year, lest the land be a desolation, and the beast of the field has multiplied 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 cast them out little [by] little from before you, until you are fruitful, and have inherited 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 have set your border from the Red Sea, even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River; for I give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you have cast 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 You do not make a covenant with them and with their gods;

Make no agreement with them or with their gods.

33 they do not dwell in your land, lest they cause you to sin against Me when you serve their gods, when it becomes a snare to 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.