< 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.
Thou shalt not receiue a false tale, neyther shalt thou put thine hande with the wicked, to be a false witnes.
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;
Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do euil, neither agree in a controuersie to decline after many and ouerthrowe the trueth.
3 and you do not honor a poor man in his strife.
Thou shalt not esteeme a poore man in his cause.
4 When you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you certainly turn it back to him;
If thou meete thine enemies oxe, or his asse going astray, thou shalt bring him to him againe.
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 thou see thine enemies asse lying vnder his burden, wilt thou cease to helpe him? thou shalt helpe him vp againe with it.
6 You do not turn aside the judgment of your poor in his strife;
Thou shalt not ouerthrowe the right of thy poore in his sute.
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.
Thou shalt keepe thee farre from a false matter, and shalt not slaye the innocent and the righteous: for I will not iustifie a wicked man.
8 And you do not take a bribe, for the bribe binds the open-[eyed] and perverts the words of the righteous.
Thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and peruerteth the wordes of the righteous.
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.
Thou shalt not oppresse a stranger: for ye knowe the heart of a stranger, seeing yee were strangers in the land of Egypt.
10 And [for] six years you sow your land and have gathered its increase;
Moreouer, sixe yeres thou shalt sowe thy land, and gather the fruites thereof,
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 the seuenth yeere thou shalt let it rest and lie still, that the poore of thy people may eat, and what they leaue, the beastes of the fielde shall eate. In like maner thou shalt doe with thy vineyard, and with thine oliue 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;
Sixe dayes thou shalt do thy worke, and in the seuenth day thou shalt rest, that thine oxe, and thine asse may rest, and the sonne of thy maide and the stranger may be refreshed.
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.
And ye shall take heede to all things that I haue sayde vnto you: and ye shall make no mention of the name of other gods, neither shall it be heard out of thy mouth.
14 You keep a celebration to Me three times in a year:
Three times thou shalt keepe a feast vnto me in the yeere.
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);
Thou shalt keepe the feast of vnleauened bread: thou shalt eate vnleauened bread seue dayes, as I commanded thee, in the season of the moneth of Abib: for in it thou camest out of Egypt: and none shall appeare before me emptie:
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.
The feast also of the haruest of the first fruites of thy labours, which thou hast sowen in the fielde: and the feast of gathering fruites in the ende of the yere, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the fielde.
17 Three times in a year all your males appear before [the] face of the Lord YHWH.
These three times in the yeere shall all thy men children appeare before the Lord Iehouah.
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;
Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leauened bread: neyther shall the fatte of my sacrifice remayne vntill 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 first of the first fruites of thy lande thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God: yet shalt thou not seeth a kid in his mothers milke.
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;
Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keepe thee in the way, and to bring thee to the place which I haue prepared.
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;
Beware of him, and heare his voyce, and prouoke him not: for he will not spare your misdeedes, 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 thou hearken vnto his voyce, and do all that I speake, the I wil be an enemie vnto thine enemies, and will afflict them that afflict thee.
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.
For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee vnto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hiuites, and the Iebusites, and I will destroy them.
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.
Thou shalt not bow downe to their gods, neither serue them, nor doe after the workes of them: but vtterly ouerthrowe them, and breake in pieces their images.
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;
For ye shall serue the Lord your God, and he shall blesse thy bread and thy water, and I will take all sickenes away from the middes of thee.
26 there is not a miscarrying and barren one in your land; I fulfill the number of your days.
There shall none cast their fruite nor be baren in thy lande: the number of thy dayes will I fulfill.
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 feare before thee, and will destroy all the people among whome thou shalt go: and I will make all thine enemies turne their backes vnto thee:
28 And I have sent the hornet before you, and it has cast out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you;
And I will sende hornets before thee, which shall driue out the Hiuites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from thy 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 cast them out from thy face in one yeere, least the land grow to a wildernes: and the beasts of the field multiplie against thee.
30 I cast them out little [by] little from before you, until you are fruitful, and have inherited the land.
By litle and litle I will driue them out from thy face, vntill thou increase, and inherite the lande.
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.
And I will make thy coastes from the red sea vnto the sea of the Philistims, and from the desert vnto the Riuer: for I will deliuer the inhabitants of the lande into your hande, and thou shalt driue them out from thy face.
32 You do not make a covenant with them and with their gods;
Thou shalt make no couenant with them, nor 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.”
Neither shall they dwell in thy lande, least they make thee sinne against me: for if thou serue their gods, surely it shall be thy destruction.

< Exodus 23 >