Exodus 23

Laws about Honesty and Justice

23“You must not spread a false report. Do not join ^hthe wicked to be a malicious witness. ⁱ

²“You must not follow a crowd in wrongdoing. Do not testify in a lawsuit and go along with a crowd to pervert justice. ^j3Do not show favoritism to a poor person in his lawsuit.

⁴“If you come across your enemy’s stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him.

⁵“If you see the donkey of someone who hates you lying helpless under its load, and you want to refrain from helping it, you must help with it. ^kl

⁶“You must not deny justice to a poor person among you in his lawsuit. ⁷Stay far away from a false accusation. Do not kill the innocent and the just, because I will not justify the guilty. ^m8You must not take a bribe, ⁿfor a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and corrupts the words ^oof the righteous. ⁹You must not oppress a foreign resident; ^pyou yourselves know how it feels to be a foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

Sabbaths and Festivals

¹⁰“Sow your land for six years and gather its produce. ^q11But during the seventh year you are to let it rest and leave it uncultivated, so that the poor among your people may eat from it and the wild animals may consume what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

¹²“Do your work ^rfor six days but rest on the seventh day so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave as well as the foreign resident may be refreshed.

¹³“Pay strict attention to everything I have said to you. You must not invoke the names of other gods; they must not be heard on your lips. ^st

¹⁴“Celebrate a festival in My honor three times a year. ^u15Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you are to eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, ^vbecause you came out of Egypt in that month. No one is to appear before Me empty-handed. ^w16Also observe the Festival of Harvest ^xwith the firstfruits of your produce from what you sow in the field, and observe the Festival of Ingathering ^yzat the end of the year, when you gather your produce ^afrom the field. ¹⁷Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God.

¹⁸“You must not offer the blood of My sacrifices with anything leavened. The fat of My festival offering must not remain until morning. ^b

¹⁹“Bring the best of the firstfruits of your land to the house of the Lord your God.

“You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. ^c

Promises and Warnings

²⁰“I am going to send an angel ^dbefore you to protect you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared. ²¹Be attentive to him and listen to his voice. Do not defy ^ehim, because he will not forgive your acts of rebellion, for My name is in him. ^f22But if you will carefully obey him and do everything I say, then I will be an enemy ^gto your enemies and a foe to your foes. ²³For My angel will go before you and bring you to the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. ^h24You must not bow down to their gods or worship them. Do not imitate their practices. Instead, demolish them ⁱand smash their sacred pillars to pieces. ^j25Worship the Lord your God, and He ^kwill bless your bread and your water. I will remove illnesses from you. ^l26No woman will miscarry or be childless in your land. I will give you the full number of your days. ^m

²⁷“I will cause the people ahead of you to feel terror ⁿand throw into confusion ^oall the nations you come to. I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you in retreat. ²⁸I will send the hornet ^pqin front of you, and it will drive the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites away from you. ²⁹I will not drive them out ahead of you in a single year; otherwise, the land would become desolate, and wild animals would multiply against you. ³⁰I will drive them out little by little ahead of you until you have become numerous ^rand take possession of the land. ³¹I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, ^sand from the wilderness to the Euphrates River. ^tFor I will place the inhabitants of the land under your control, and you will drive them out ahead of you. ^u32You must not make a covenant ^vwith them or their gods. ³³They must not remain in your land, or else they will make you sin against Me. If you worship their gods, it will be a snare for you.” ^w