Exodus 23

CHAPTER 23

¹“^aYou shall not bear a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked man to be a ^bmalicious witness.

²“You shall not follow ¹the masses in doing evil, nor shall you ²testify in a case so as to turn aside after ³the masses in order to ^4acause justice to be turned aside;

^3anor shall you ¹be partial to a poor man in his case.

⁴“^aIf you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him.

⁵“^aIf you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it to him, you shall surely release it with him.

⁶“^aYou shall not cause the justice due to your needy brother to be turned aside in his case.

⁷“^aKeep far from a ¹false charge, and ^bdo not kill the innocent or the righteous, for ^cI will not justify the guilty.

⁸“^aAnd you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and ¹subverts the cause of the ²just.

⁹“^aAnd you shall not oppress a sojourner, since you yourselves know the soul of a sojourner, for you also were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Judgments About Work and Rest

¹⁰“^aNow you shall sow your land for six years and gather in its produce,

¹¹but on the seventh year you shall let it ¹rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. Thus you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove.

¹²“^aSix days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall ¹rest so that your ox and your donkey may ²rest, and the son of your maidservant, as well as your sojourner, may refresh themselves.

¹³“Now ^aconcerning everything which I have said to you, beware; and ^bdo not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard ¹from your mouth.

Judgments About National Feasts

¹⁴“^aThree times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me.

¹⁵“You shall keep ^athe Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the ^bmonth Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. And ^1cnone shall appear before Me empty-handed.

¹⁶“Also you shall keep ^athe Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year ^bwhen you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field.

¹⁷“^aThree times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁸“^aYou shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; ^bnor is the fat of My ¹feast to remain overnight until morning.

¹⁹“You shall bring ^athe choice first fruits of your ground into the house of Yahweh your God.

“^bYou shall not boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.

Yahweh Will Drive Out Israel’s Enemies

²⁰“Behold, I am going to send ^aan angel before you to keep you along the way and ^bto bring you into the place which I have prepared.

²¹“Keep watch of yourself before him and listen to his voice; ^ado not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since ^bMy name is in him.

²²“But if you truly listen to his voice and do all that I speak, then ^aI will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

²³“^aFor My angel will go before you and bring you in to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I will annihilate them.

²⁴“^aYou shall not worship their gods, you shall not serve them, and you shall not do according to their deeds; ^bbut you shall utterly pull them down and shatter their ^csacred pillars in pieces.

²⁵“^aBut you shall serve Yahweh your God, ¹and He will bless your bread and your water; and ^bI will remove sickness from your midst.

²⁶“There shall be no one miscarrying or ^abarren in your land; ^bI will fulfill the number of your days.

²⁷“I will ^asend My terror ahead of you and ^bthrow into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will ^cmake all your enemies ¹turn their backs to you.

²⁸“And I will send ^ahornets ahead of you so that they will ^bdrive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you.

²⁹“^aI will not drive them out before you in a single year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.

³⁰“I will drive them out before you ^alittle by little, until you become fruitful and take the land as an inheritance.

³¹“^aAnd I will set your boundary from the ¹Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the ²River; ^bfor I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will ^cdrive them out from before you.

³²“^aYou shall cut no covenant with them ^bor with their gods.

³³“^aThey shall not live in your land, lest they make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, ^bit will surely be a snare to you.”