1‘Do not spread reports that are false. Do not help a guilty person by telling lies in court.2‘Do not follow the crowd when they do what is wrong. When you are a witness in court, do not turn what is right into what is wrong. Do not go along with the crowd.3Do not show favour to a poor person in court.4‘Suppose you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering away. Then be sure to return it.5Suppose you see that the donkey of someone who hates you has fallen down under its load. Then do not leave it there. Be sure you help them with it.6‘Be fair to your poor people in their court cases.7Do not have anything to do with a false charge. Do not put to death people not guilty of doing anything wrong. I will not let guilty people go free.8‘Do not take money from people who want special favours. It makes you blind to the truth. It twists the words of good people.9‘Do not treat outsiders badly. You yourselves know how it feels to be outsiders. Remember, you were outsiders in Egypt.
Sabbath laws
10‘For six years plant your fields and gather your crops.11But during the seventh year do not plough your land or use it. Then the poor people among you can get food from it. The wild animals can eat what is left over. Do the same thing with your vineyards and your groves of olive trees.12‘Do all your work in six days. But do not do any work on the seventh day. Then your oxen and donkeys can rest. The slaves born in your house can be renewed. And so can the outsiders who live among you.13‘Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not speak the names of other gods. Do not even let them be heard on your lips.
Laws about celebrating the three main feasts
14‘Three times a year you must celebrate a feast in my honour.15‘Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days, eat bread made without yeast, just as I commanded you. Do it at the appointed time in the month of Aviv. You came out of Egypt in that month. ‘You must not come to worship me with your hands empty.16‘Celebrate the Feast of Weeks. Bring the first share of your crops from your fields. ‘Celebrate the Feast of Booths. Hold it in the autumn when you gather in your crops from your fields.17‘Three times a year all your men must come to worship me. I am your LORD and King.18‘Do not include anything made with yeast when you offer me the blood of a sacrifice. ‘Suppose the fat from sacrifices is left over from my feasts. Then do not keep it until morning.19‘Bring the best of the first share of your crops to my house. I am the LORD your God. ‘Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
God’s angel will prepare the way
20‘I am sending an angel ahead of you. He will guard you along the way. He will bring you to the place I have prepared.21Pay attention to him. Listen to what he says. Do not refuse to obey him. He will not forgive you if you turn against him. He has my full authority.22Listen carefully to what he says. Do everything I say. Then I will be an enemy to your enemies. I will fight against those who fight against you.23My angel will go ahead of you. He will bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites. I will wipe them out.24Do not do what they do. Do not bow down to their gods or worship them. You must destroy the statues of their gods. You must break their sacred stones to pieces.25Worship the LORD your God. Then he will bless your food and water. I, the LORD, will take away any disease you may have.26In your land no woman will give birth to a dead baby. Every woman will be able to have children. I will give you a long life.27‘I will send my terror ahead of you. I will throw every nation you meet into a panic. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run away.28I will send hornets ahead of you. They will drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way.29But I will not drive them out in just one year. If I did, the land would be deserted. There would be too many wild animals for you.30I will drive them out ahead of you little by little. I will do that until there are enough of you to take control of the land.31‘I will make your borders secure from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. They will go from the desert to the River Euphrates. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land. You will drive them out to make room for yourselves.32Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods.33Do not let them live in your land. If you do, they will cause you to sin against me. If you worship their gods, that will certainly be a trap for you.’
Exodus 23
English Standard Version
1“You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. (Le 19:11; De 19:16; 1Ki 21:10; 1Ki 21:13; Ps 15:3; Ps 35:11; Ps 101:5; Mt 26:59; Ac 6:11; Ac 6:13)2You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice,3nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit. (Le 19:15; De 1:17)4“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. (De 22:1; De 22:4; Pr 25:21; Mt 5:44; Ro 12:20; 1Th 5:15)5If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him.6“You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit. (De 27:19; Ec 5:8; Isa 10:1; Jer 5:28; Mal 3:5)7Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. (Ex 23:1; Ex 34:7; De 27:25; Pr 17:26)8And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right. (De 16:19; 1Sa 8:3; 2Ch 19:7; Ps 26:10; Pr 17:23; Isa 1:23; Isa 5:23; Isa 33:15)9“You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. (Ex 22:21)
Laws About the Sabbath and Festivals
10“For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, (Le 25:3)11but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.12“Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed. (Ex 20:9)13“Pay attention to all that I have said to you, and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let it be heard on your lips. (De 4:9; Jos 22:5; Jos 23:7; Ho 2:17; Zec 13:2)14“Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. (Ex 23:17; Ex 34:23; De 16:16)15You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed. (Ex 12:15; Ex 13:4; Ex 34:20; De 16:16)16You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. (Ex 34:22; Le 23:9; Le 23:34; De 16:13)17Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God. (Ex 23:14)18“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the fat of my feast remain until the morning. (Ex 12:8; Ex 34:25; Le 2:11)19“The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. (Ex 34:26; Le 2:12; Le 23:10; Le 23:17; Nu 18:12; De 14:21; De 26:2; De 26:10; Ne 10:35; Eze 44:30)
Conquest of Canaan Promised
20“Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. (Ex 14:19; Ex 33:2; Ex 33:14; Jos 5:13; Jos 6:2; Isa 63:9)21Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. (Ex 32:34; Ex 34:7; Nu 14:35; Jos 24:19; Ps 78:40; Ps 78:56)22“But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. (Ge 12:3; De 30:7; Jer 30:20)23“When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, (Ex 13:5; Ex 23:20)24you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. (Ex 20:5; Ex 34:13; Le 18:3; Nu 33:52; De 7:5; De 7:25; De 12:3; De 12:30; De 16:22)25You shall serve the Lord your God, and he[1] will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you. (Ex 15:26; De 6:13; De 7:13; De 7:15; De 10:12; De 10:20; De 11:13; De 13:4; De 28:5; De 28:8; Jos 22:5; Mt 4:10)26None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. (De 7:14; Job 5:26; Ps 55:23)27I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. (De 2:25; De 7:23; Jos 2:9)28And I will send hornets[2] before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. (De 7:20; Jos 24:12)29I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. (De 7:22)30Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land.31And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates,[3] for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. (Ge 15:18; Nu 34:3; De 11:24; Jos 1:4; Jos 21:44; Jud 1:4; Jud 11:21; 1Ki 4:21; 1Ki 4:24; Ps 72:8)32You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. (Ex 34:12; Ex 34:15; De 7:2)33They 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.” (Ex 34:12; De 7:16; Jos 23:13; Jud 2:3; Ps 106:36)