23:1 “You shall not give a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked person to be a malicious witness.
23:2 You shall not follow ①the crowd in doing evil, nor shall you ②testify in a dispute so as to join together with ③a crowd in order to pervert justice;
▷ ①Lit many ②Or answer ③Lit many
23:3 nor shall you ①show favor to a poor person in his dispute.
▷ ①Lit honor
23:4 “If you encounter your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you must return it to him.
23:5 If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall not leave it helpless for ①its owner; you must arrange the load with him.
▷ ①Lit him
23:6 “You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute.
23:7 Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit the guilty.
23:8 “You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and ①subverts the cause of the just.
▷ ①Or distorts the words
23:9 “You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the ①feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.
▷ ①Lit soul
23:10 “Now you shall sow your land for six years and gather in its yield,
23:11 but in the seventh year you shall let it ①rest and lie uncultivated, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the animal of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.
▷ ①Lit drop
23:12 “For six 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 the stranger residing with you, may refresh themselves.
23:13 Now concerning everything which I have said to you, be careful; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard ①from your mouth.
▷ ①Lit on
23:14 “Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me.
23:15 You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in ①that month you came out of Egypt. And ②no one is to appear before Me empty-handed.
▷ ①Lit it ②Lit they shall not
23:16 Also you shall keep the 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 when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field.
23:17 Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord ①GOD.
▷ ①Heb YHWH, usually rendered LORD
23:18 “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor is the fat of My ①feast to remain overnight until morning.
▷ ①Or festival
23:19 “You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the LORD your God. “You are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.
23:20 “Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
23:21 Be attentive to him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your rebellion, since My name is in him.
23:22 But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
23:23 For My angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I will completely destroy them.
23:24 You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their memorial stones in pieces.
23:25 And you shall serve the LORD your God, ①and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst.
▷ ①Or that He may bless
23:26 There will be no one miscarrying or unable to have children in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.
23:27 I will send My terror ahead of you, and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
23:28 And I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from you.
23:29 I will not drive them out from you in a single year, so that the land will not become desolate and the animals of the field become too numerous for you.
23:30 I will drive them out from you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land.
23:31 I will set your boundary from the ①Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates River; for I will hand over the inhabitants of the land to you, and you will drive them out from you.
▷ ①Lit Sea of Reeds
23:32 You shall ①make no covenant with them or with their gods.
▷ ①Lit cut
23:33 They shall not live in your land, otherwise they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it is certain to be a snare to you.”