Chapter 23

Sundry Laws

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 dispute so as to turn aside after 1a multitude in order to apervert justice;

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

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 pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute.

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

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

9 “aYou shall not oppress a 1stranger, since you yourselves know the 2feelings of a 1stranger, for you also were 1strangers in the land of Egypt.

The Sabbath and Land

10 “aYou shall sow your land for six years and gather in its yield,

11 but 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. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

12 “aSix days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as 1your stranger, may refresh themselves.

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

Three National Feasts

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

15 “You shall observe 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 observe 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 1God.

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 soil into the house of the Lord your God.

“bYou are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.

Conquest of the Land

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

21 “Be on your guard before him and obey 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 obey his voice and do all that I say, 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 completely destroy them.

24 “aYou shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; bbut you shall utterly overthrow them and break their csacred pillars in pieces.

25 “aBut you shall serve the Lord 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 turn their backs to you.

28 “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, that the land may not 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 possession of the land.

31 “aI will fix your boundary from the 1Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates; bfor I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will cdrive them out before you.

32 “aYou shall 1make no covenant with them bor with their gods.

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