23 You shall not repeat or raise a false report; you shall not join with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
2 You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you bear witness at a trial so as to side with a multitude to pervert justice.
3 Neither shall you be partial to a poor man in his trial [just because he is poor].
4 If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.
5 If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying [helpless] under his load, you shall refrain from leaving the man to cope with it alone; you shall help him to release the animal.
6 You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his cause.
7 Keep far from a false matter and [be very careful] not to condemn to death the innocent and the righteous, for I will not justify and acquit the wicked.
8 You shall take no bribe, for the bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the testimony and the cause of the righteous.
9 Also you shall not oppress a temporary resident, for you know the heart of a stranger and sojourner, seeing you were strangers and sojourners in Egypt.
10 Six years you shall sow your land and reap its yield.
11 But the seventh year you shall release it and let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat [what the land voluntarily yields], and what they leave the wild beasts shall eat. In like manner you shall deal with your vineyard and olive grove.
12 Six days you shall do your work, but the seventh day you shall rest and keep Sabbath, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your bondwoman, and the alien, may be refreshed.
13 In all I have said to you take heed; do not mention the name of other gods [either in blessing or cursing]; do not let such speech be heard from your mouth.
14 Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to Me.
15 You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before Me empty-handed.
16 Also you shall keep the Feast of Harvest [Pentecost], [acknowledging] the firstfruits of your toil, of what you sow in the field. And [third] you shall keep the Feast of Ingathering [Booths or Tabernacles] at the end of the year, when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field.
17 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.
18 You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread [but keep it unmixed], neither shall the fat of My feast remain all night until morning.
19 The first of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
20 Behold, I send an [a]Angel before you to keep and guard you on the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.
21 Give heed to Him, listen to and obey His voice; be not rebellious before Him or provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgression; for My [b]Name is in Him.(A)
22 But if you will indeed listen to and obey His voice and all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
23 When My Angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I reject them and blot them out,
24 You shall not bow down to their gods or serve them or do after their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and break down their pillars and images.
25 You shall serve the Lord your God; He shall bless your bread and water, and I will take sickness from your midst.
26 None shall lose her young by miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.
27 I will send My terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people to whom you shall come, and I will make all your foes turn from you [in flight].
28 And I will send hornets before you which shall drive out the Hivite, Canaanite, and Hittite from before you.
29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate [for lack of attention] and the wild beasts multiply against you.
30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and are numerous enough to take possession of the land.
31 I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the river [Euphrates]; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand and you shall drive them out before you.
32 You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods.
33 They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.
Footnotes
- Exodus 23:20 See footnote on Gen. 16:7.
- Exodus 23:21 Representing God’s presence.