Exodus 23

“You shall not spread a false report. Do not join hands with a wicked person to be a malicious witness. You shall not follow the many in doing evil. You shall not testify in a dispute by siding with the many to pervert justice. Nor shall you show partiality to a poor man in his dispute. If you encounter your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering away, you shall surely bring it back to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its load, you shall not leave him without help; you shall surely help him with it. You shall not pervert the justice due to a poor man among you in his dispute. Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. You shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and perverts the words of the righteous. You shall not oppress a resident foreigner. You yourselves know the heart of a resident foreigner, for you were resident foreigners in the land of Egypt. For six years you shall sow your land and gather its produce, but in the seventh you shall let it rest and leave it alone, so that the poor of your people may eat, and the animals of the field may eat what they leave. You shall do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove. Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave and the resident foreigner may be refreshed. Be attentive to all that I have said to you. You shall not mention the name of other gods; it shall not be heard on your lips. Three times a year you shall keep a feast to me. You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. No one shall appear before me empty-handed. You shall also keep the Feast of Harvest, with the firstfruits of your work, of what you sow in the field, and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather the fruit of your work from the field. Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD. You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, nor shall the fat of my festal sacrifice remain until morning. You shall bring the best of the firstfruits of your land to the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. Look, I am sending an angel before you to guard you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared. Be attentive to him and obey his voice. Do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, because my name is in him. But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. For my angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will destroy them. You shall not bow down to their gods or serve them, nor shall you do as they do. You shall utterly overthrow them and smash their pillars. You shall serve the LORD your God, and he will bless your bread and your water. I will take sickness away from among you. None shall miscarry or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days. I will send my terror before you and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. I will send hornets before you, and they will drive the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites out from before you. I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the animals of the field multiply against you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land. I will set your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River, for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out from before you. You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. 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.”

Rights and attribution