Exodus, 23

1. 'You will not spread false rumours. You will not lend support to the wicked by giving untrue evidence.

1. Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.

2. You will not be led into wrong-doing by the majority nor, when giving evidence in a lawsuit, side with the majority to pervert the course of justice;

2. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to [do] evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest [judgment]:

3. nor will you show partiality to the poor in a lawsuit.

3. Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause.

4. 'If you come on your enemy's ox or donkey straying, you will take it back to him.

4. If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.

5. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen under its load, do not stand back; you must go and help him with it.

5. If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.

6. 'You will not cheat the poor among you of their rights at law.

6. Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause.

7. Keep clear of fraud. Do not cause the death of the innocent or upright, and do not acquit the guilty.

7. Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.

8. You will accept no bribes, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and is the ruin of the cause of the upright.

8. And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.

9. 'You will not oppress the alien; you know how an alien feels, for you yourselves were once aliens in Egypt.

9. Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

10. 'For six years you will sow your land and gather its produce,

10. And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:

11. but in the seventh year you will let it lie fallow and forgo all produce from it, so that those of your people who are poor can take food from it and the wild animals eat what they have left. You will do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

11. But the seventh [year] thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, [and] with thy oliveyard.

12. 'For six days you will do your work, and on the seventh you will rest, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the child of your slave-girl have a breathing space, and the alien too.

12. Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.

13. 'Take notice of everything I have told you and do not mention the name of any other god: let none ever be heard from your lips.

13. And in all [things] that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.

14. 'Three times a year you will hold a festival in my honour.

14. Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.

15. You will observe the feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you will eat unleavened bread, as I have commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. No one will appear before me empty-handed.

15. Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)

16. You will also observe the feast of Harvest, of the first-fruits of your labours in sowing the fields, and the feast of Ingathering, at the end of the year, once you have brought the fruits of your labours in from the fields.

16. And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, [which is] in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.

17. Three times a year all your menfolk will appear before Lord Yahweh.

17. Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

18. 'You will not offer the blood of my victim with leavened bread, nor will the fat of my feast be kept till the following day.

18. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.

19. 'You will bring the best of the first-fruits of your soil to the house of Yahweh your God. 'You will not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

19. The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

20. 'Look, I am sending an angel to precede you, to guard you as you go and bring you to the place that I have prepared.

20. Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.

21. Revere him and obey what he says. Do not defy him: he will not forgive any wrong-doing on your part, for my name is in him.

21. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name [is] in him.

22. If, however, you obey what he says and do whatever I order, I shall be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.

22. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.

23. My angel will precede you and lead you to the home of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, whom I shall exterminate.

23. For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.

24. You will not bow down to their gods or worship them or observe their rites, but throw them down and smash their cultic stones.

24. Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.

25. You will worship Yahweh your God, and then I shall bless your food and water, and keep you free of sickness.

25. And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.

26. In your country no woman will miscarry, none be sterile, and I shall give you your full term of life.

26. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.

27. 'I shall send terror of myself ahead of you; I shall throw all the peoples you encounter into confusion, and make all your enemies take to their heels.

27. I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.

28. I shall send hornets ahead of you to drive Hivite, Canaanite and Hittite out before you.

28. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

29. I shall not drive them out ahead of you in a single year, or the land might become a desert where wild animals would multiply to your cost.

29. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.

30. I shall drive them out little by little before you, until your numbers grow sufficient for you to take possession of the land.

30. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

31. And your frontiers I shall fix from the Sea of Reeds to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River, for I shall put the inhabitants of the territory at your mercy, and you will drive them out before you.

31. And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.

32. You will make no pact with them or with their gods.

32. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.

33. They may not stay in your country or they might make you sin against me, for you would serve their gods, and that would be a snare for you!'

33. They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.