Exodus 23

1 Thou shalt not take up a false report: put not thy hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.2 Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to turn aside after a multitude to wrest justice:3 neither shalt thou favor a poor man in his cause.

4 If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.5 If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, thou shalt forbear to leave him, thou shalt surely release it with him.

6 Thou shalt not wrest the justice due to thy poor in his cause.7 Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.8 And thou shalt take no bribe: for a bribe blindeth them that have sight, and perverteth the words of the righteous.9 And a sojourner shalt thou not oppress: for ye know the heart of a sojourner, seeing ye were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

10 And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the increase thereof:11 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 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 sojourner, may be refreshed.13 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 Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.15 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 feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labors, which thou sowest in the field: and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when thou gatherest in thy labors out of the field.17 Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord Jehovah.

18 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 first of the first-fruits of thy ground thou shalt bring into the house of Jehovah thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

20 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 Take ye heed before him, and hearken unto his voice; provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgression: for my name is in him.22 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 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 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 ye shall serve Jehovah your God, and he will bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.26 There shall none cast her young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.27 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 will send the hornet before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.29 I will not drive them out from before thee in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the beasts of the field multiply against thee.30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.31 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 Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.33 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.

EXODUS 23

Equal Justice for All

The [Lord] said:

1  t Don't spread harmful rumors or help a criminal by giving false evidence.
2 Always tell the truth in court, even if everyone else ist dishonest and stands in the way of justice.

3 t And don't favor the poor, simply because they are poor.

4  t If you find an ox or a donkey that has wandered off, take it back where it belongs, even if the owner is your enemy.

5 If a donkey is overloaded and falls down, you must do what you can to help, even if it belongs to someone who doesn't like you.t
6  t Make sure that the poor are given equal justice in court.

7 Don't bring false charges against anyone or sentence an innocent person to death. I won't forgive you if you do.

8 Don't accept bribes. Judges are blinded and justice is twisted by bribes.

9  t Don't mistreat foreigners. You were foreigners in Egypt, and you know what it is like.

Laws for the Sabbath

The [Lord] said:

11 but let the land rest during the seventh year. The poor are to eat what they want from your fields, vineyards, and olive trees during that year, and when they have all they want from your fields, leave the rest for wild animals.

12  t Work the first six days of the week, but rest and relax on the seventh day. This law is not only for you, but for your oxen, donkeys, and slaves, as well as for any foreigners among you.

13 Make certain that you obey everything I have said. Don't pray to other gods or even mention their names.

Three Annual Festivals

(Exodus 34.18-26; Deuteronomy 16.1-17)

The [Lord] said:

14 Celebrate three festivals each year in my honor.

15  t Celebrate the Festival of Thin Bread by eating bread made without yeast, just as I have commanded.t Do this at the proper time during the month of Abib, t because it is the month when you left Egypt. And make certain that everyone brings the proper offerings.

16  t Celebrate the Harvest Festivalt each spring when you start harvesting your wheat, and celebrate the Festival of Shelterst each autumn when you pick your fruit.

17 Your men must come to these three festivals each year to worship me.

18 Do not offer bread made with yeast when you sacrifice an animal to me. And make sure that the fat of the animal is burned that same day.

19  t Each year bring the best part of your first harvest to the place of worship.
Don't boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

A Promise and a Warning

The [Lord] said:

24 Don't worship their gods or follow their customs. Instead, destroy their idols and shatter their stone images.
25 Worship only me, the [Lord] your God! I will bless you with plenty of food and water and keep you strong.

26 Your women will give birth to healthy children, and everyone will live a long life.
27 I will terrify those nations and make your enemies so confused that they will run from you. 28 I will make the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites panic as you approach. 29 But I won't do all this in the first year, because the land would become poor, and wild animals would be everywhere.

30 Instead, I will force out your enemies little by little and give your nation time to grow strong enough to take over the land.
31 I will see that your borders reach from the Red Seat to the Euphrates River and from the Mediterranean Sea to the desert. I will let you defeat the people who live there, and you will force them out of the land. 32 But you must not make any agreements with them or with their gods. 33 Don't let them stay in your land. They will trap you into sinning against me and worshiping their gods.