Justice for All

23 “You ^(A)shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an ^(B)unrighteous witness. ^2 (C)You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; ^(D)nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice. ³ You shall not show partiality to a ^(E)poor man in his dispute.

^4 (F)“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. ^5 (G)If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it.

^6 (H)“You shall not pervert the judgment of your poor in his dispute. ^7 (I)Keep yourself far from a false matter; ^(J)do not kill the innocent and righteous. For ^(K)I will not justify the wicked. ⁸ And ^(L)you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous.

⁹ “Also ^(M)you shall not oppress a ^[a]stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

The Law of Sabbaths

^10 (N)“Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, ¹¹ but 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. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your ^[b]olive grove. ^12 (O)Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.

¹³ “And in all that I have said to you, ^(P)be circumspect and ^(Q)make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth.

Three Annual Feasts^(R)

^14 (S)“Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: ^15 (T)You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; ^(U)none shall appear before Me empty); ^16 (V)and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and ^(W)the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.

^17 (X)“Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord ^[c]God.

^18 (Y)“You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened ^(Z)bread; nor shall the fat of My ^[d]sacrifice remain until morning. ^19 (AA)The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. ^(AB)You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

The Angel and the Promises

^20 (AC)“Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. ²¹ Beware of Him and obey His voice; ^(AD)do not provoke Him, for He will ^(AE)not pardon your transgressions; for ^(AF)My name is in Him. ²² But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then ^(AG)I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. ^23 (AH)For My Angel will go before you and ^(AI)bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will ^[e]cut them off. ²⁴ You shall not ^(AJ)bow down to their gods, nor serve them, ^(AK)nor do according to their works; ^(AL)but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars.

²⁵ “So you shall ^(AM)serve the Lord your God, and ^(AN)He will bless your bread and your water. And ^(AO)I will take sickness away from the midst of you. ^26 (AP)No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will ^(AQ)fulfill the number of your days.

²⁷ “I will send ^(AR)My fear before you, I will ^(AS)cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. ²⁸ And ^(AT)I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. ^29 (AU)I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. ³⁰ Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land. ³¹ And ^(AV)I will set your ^[f]bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert to the ^[g]River. For I will ^(AW)deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. ^32 (AX)You shall make no ^[h]covenant with them, nor with their gods. ³³ They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, ^(AY)it will surely be a snare to you.”

Moses Makes New Tablets^(A)

34 And the Lord said to Moses, ^(B)“Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and ^(C)I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. ² So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there ^(D)on the top of the mountain. ³ And no man shall ^(E)come up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain; let neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain.”

⁴ So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him; and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone.

⁵ Now the Lord descended in the ^(F)cloud and stood with him there, and ^(G)proclaimed the name of the Lord. ⁶ And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord ^(H)God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in ^(I)goodness and ^(J)truth, ^7 (K)keeping mercy for thousands, ^(L)forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, ^(M)by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

⁸ So Moses made haste and ^(N)bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. ⁹ Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, ^(O)let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a ^(P)stiff-necked^[a] people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as ^(Q)Your inheritance.”

The Covenant Renewed^(R)

¹⁰ And He said: “Behold, ^(S)I make a covenant. Before all your people I will ^(T)do ^[b]marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. For it is ^(U)an awesome thing that I will do with you. ^11 (V)Observe what I command you this day. Behold, ^(W)I am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. ^12 (X)Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. ¹³ But you shall ^(Y)destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and ^(Z)cut down their wooden images ¹⁴ (for you shall worship ^(AA)no other god, for the Lord, whose ^(AB)name is Jealous, is a ^(AC)jealous God), ¹⁵ lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they ^(AD)play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them ^(AE)invites you and you ^(AF)eat of his sacrifice, ¹⁶ and you take of ^(AG)his daughters for your sons, and his daughters ^(AH)play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods.

^17 (AI)“You shall make no molded gods for yourselves.

¹⁸ “The Feast of ^(AJ)Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib; for in the ^(AK)month of Abib you came out from Egypt.

^19 (AL)“All ^[c]that open the womb are Mine, and every male firstborn among your livestock, whether ox or sheep. ²⁰ But ^(AM)the firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem him, then you shall break his neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem.

“And none shall appear before Me ^(AN)empty-handed.

^21 (AO)“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.

²² “And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end.

^23 (AP)“Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the Lord God of Israel. ²⁴ For I will ^(AQ)cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither will any man covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.

²⁵ “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven, ^(AR)nor shall the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover be left until morning.

^26 (AS)“The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

²⁷ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write ^(AT)these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” ^28 (AU)So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And ^(AV)He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ^[d]Ten Commandments.

The Shining Face of Moses

²⁹ Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the ^(AW)two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that ^(AX)the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. ³⁰ So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. ³¹ Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses talked with them. ³² Afterward all the children of Israel came near, ^(AY)and he gave them as commandments all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. ³³ And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put ^(AZ)a veil on his face. ³⁴ But ^(BA)whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded. ³⁵ And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him.