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 take up a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous 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;

Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to turn aside after a multitude to wrest [judgment]:

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

neither shalt thou favour a poor 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 meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.

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 the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.

6 You do not turn aside the judgment of your poor in his strife;

Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his 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 thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.

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

And thou shalt take no gift: for a gift blindeth them that have sight, and perverteth the words 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.

And a stranger shalt thou not oppress: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

10 And [for] six years you sow your land and have gathered its increase;

And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the increase 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 seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie fallow; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beast of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, [and] with thy oliveyard.

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;

Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may have rest, and the son of thy handmaid, 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 in all things that I have said unto you take ye heed: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.

14 You keep a celebration to Me three times in a year:

Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.

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);

The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep: seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it thou camest out from Egypt); and none shall appear before me empty:

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 harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou sowest in the field: and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when thou gatherest in thy labours out of the field.

17 Three times in a year all your males appear before [the] face of the Lord YHWH.

Three times in the year all thy males shall appear 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;

Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my feast remain all night until 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 firstfruits of thy ground thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid 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;

Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee by the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have 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;

Take ye heed of him, and hearken unto his voice; provoke him not: for he will not pardon your transgression; for 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 shalt indeed hearken unto his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.

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 in unto the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: and I will cut them off.

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 down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and break in pieces their pillars.

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 ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst 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 her young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will 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 terror before thee, and will discomfit all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto 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 send the hornet before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

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 drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.

30 I cast them out little [by] little from before you, until you are fruitful, and have inherited the land.

By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit 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.

And I will set thy border from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness unto the River: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.

32 You do not make a covenant with them and with their gods;

Thou shalt make no covenant 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.”

They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.