Exodus 23

1 The Lord continued, “Never spread false rumors. Don’t join forces with wicked people by giving false testimony.2 Never follow a crowd in doing wrong. When you testify in court, don’t side with the majority to pervert justice.

3 Never give special favors to poor people in court.
4 “Whenever you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering loose, be sure to take it back to him.

5 Whenever you see that the donkey of someone who hates you has collapsed under its load, don’t leave it there. Be sure to help him with his animal.
6 “Never deny justice to poor people in court.7 Avoid telling lies. Don’t kill innocent or honest people, because I will never declare guilty people innocent.

8 Never take a bribe, because bribes blind those who can see and deny justice to those who are in the right.
9 “Never oppress foreigners. You know what it’s like to be foreigners because you were foreigners living in Egypt.10 “For six years you may plant crops in your fields and harvest them,

11 but in the seventh year you must leave the land unplowed and unused. In that way the poor among your people will have food to eat, and wild animals may eat what the poor people leave. You must do the same with your vineyards and olive groves.
12 “For six days you will do your work, but on the seventh day you must not work. Then your ox and donkey can rest. The slaves born in your household and foreigners will also be refreshed.13 “Be careful to do everything I told you.“Never mention the names of other gods or let them be heard on your lips.

Laws for Three Festivals

14 “Three times a year you must celebrate a pilgrimage festival in my honor.15 “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread: For seven days you must eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, because that was when you left Egypt. No one may come into my presence without an offering.16 “Celebrate the Festival of the Harvest with the first produce harvested from whatever you plant in your fields.“Celebrate the Festival of the Final Harvest at the end of the year when you harvest your crops from the fields.17 “These are the three times each year that all your men must come into the presence of the Master, the Lord.18 “Never offer the blood of a sacrifice to me at the same time you offer anything containing yeast. The fat sacrificed at my festivals should never be left over in the morning.19 “You must bring the best of the first produce harvested from your soil to the house of the Lord your God.“Never cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Laws About God’s Messenger, Who Will Bring Israel to the Promised Land

20 “I’m going to send a Messenger in front of you to protect you on your trip and bring you to the place I have prepared.21 Pay attention to him, and listen to him. Don’t defy him, because he will not forgive your disobedience. He is acting on my authority.

22 But if you will listen to him and do everything I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an opponent to your opponents.
23 “My Messenger will go ahead of you and will bring you to the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites. I will wipe them out.24 Never worship or serve their gods or follow their practices. Instead, you must destroy their gods and crush their sacred stones.25 You must serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your food and water. I will take away all sickness from among you.

26 No woman in your land will miscarry or be unable to have children. I will let you live a normal life span.
27 “I will send my terror ahead of you and throw any nation you meet into a panic. I will make all your enemies flee from you.28 I will spread panic ahead of you to force the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites out of your way.29 I will not force them out of your way in one year. Otherwise, the land would be deserted, and wild animals would take over.

30 Little by little I will force them out of your way until you have increased enough in number to take possession of the land.
31 “I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and from the Sinai Desert to the Euphrates River. I will put the people living in the land under your control, and you will force them out of your way.32 Never make a treaty with them and their gods.

33 Never let them live in your land, or they will make you sin against me and trap you into serving their gods.”

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.