Exodus 23

¹You shall not spread a false report . You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness .

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 .

⁴If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray , you shall bring it back to him.

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.

⁶You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit .

⁷Keep far from a false charge , and do not kill the innocent and righteous , for I will not acquit the wicked .

⁸And you shall take no bribe , for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right .

⁹You shall not oppress a sojourner . You know the heart of a sojourner , for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt .

¹⁰For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield ,

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 .

¹²Six 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 .

¹³Pay 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 .

¹⁴Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me.

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 .

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 .

¹⁷Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God.

¹⁸You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened , or let the fat of my feast remain until the morning .

¹⁹The 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 .

²⁰Behold , I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared .

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 .

²²But 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 .

²³When 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 ,

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 .

²⁵You shall serve the Lord your God , and he will bless your bread and your water , and I will take sickness away from among you.

²⁶None shall miscarry or be barren in your land ; I will fulfill the number of your days .

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.

²⁸And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites , the Canaanites , and the Hittites from before you.

²⁹I will not drive them out from before you in one year , lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you.

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 , for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand , and you shall drive them out before you.

³²You shall make no covenant with them and their gods .

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.