Exodus 22:16-24:18

New King James Version

Moral and Ceremonial Principles

¹⁶^(A)“If a man entices a virgin who is not betrothed, and lies with her, he shall surely pay the bride-price for her to be his wife. ¹⁷If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the ^(B)bride-price of virgins.

¹⁸^(C)“You shall not permit a sorceress to live.

¹⁹^(D)“Whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death.

²⁰^(E)“He who sacrifices to any god, except to the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed.

²¹^(F)“You shall neither mistreat a ^[a]stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

²²^(G)“You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. ²³If you afflict them in any way, and they ^(H)cry at all to Me, I will surely ^(I)hear their cry; ²⁴and My ^(J)wrath will become hot, and I will kill you with the sword; ^(K)your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.

²⁵^(L)“If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him ^(M)interest. ²⁶^(N)If you ever take your neighbor’s garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down. ²⁷For that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What will he sleep in? And it will be that when he cries to Me, I will hear, for I am ^(O)gracious.

²⁸^(P)“You shall not revile God, nor curse a ^(Q)ruler of your people.

²⁹“You shall not delay to offer ^(R)the first of your ripe produce and your juices. ^(S)The firstborn of your sons you shall give to Me. ³⁰^(T)Likewise you shall do with your oxen and your sheep. It shall be with its mother ^(U)seven days; on the eighth day you shall give it to Me.

³¹“And you shall be ^(V)holy men to Me: ^(W)you shall not eat meat torn by beasts in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs.

Justice for All

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

⁴^(AC)“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. ⁵^(AD)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^(AE)“You shall not pervert the judgment of your poor in his dispute. ⁷^(AF)Keep yourself far from a false matter; ^(AG)do not kill the innocent and righteous. For ^(AH)I will not justify the wicked. ⁸And ^(AI)you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous.

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

The Law of Sabbaths

¹⁰^(AK)“Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, 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. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your ^[c]olive grove. ¹²^(AL)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, ^(AM)be circumspect and ^(AN)make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth.

Three Annual Feasts^(AO)

¹⁴^(AP)“Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: ¹⁵^(AQ)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; ^(AR)none shall appear before Me empty); ¹⁶^(AS)and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and ^(AT)the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.

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

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

The Angel and the Promises

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

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

²⁷“I will send ^(BO)My fear before you, I will ^(BP)cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. ²⁸And ^(BQ)I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. ²⁹^(BR)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. ³⁰Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land. ³¹And ^(BS)I will set your ^[g]bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert to the ^[h]River. For I will ^(BT)deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. ³²^(BU)You shall make no ^[i]covenant with them, nor with their gods. ³³They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, ^(BV)it will surely be a snare to you.”

Israel Affirms the Covenant

24 Now He said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, ^(BW)Nadab and Abihu, ^(BX)and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. ²And Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come near; nor shall the people go up with him.”

³So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the ^[j]judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, ^(BY)“All the words which the Lord has said we will do.” ⁴And Moses ^(BZ)wrote all the words of the Lord. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve ^(CA)pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered ^(CB)burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. ⁶And Moses ^(CC)took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. ⁷Then he ^(CD)took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient.” ⁸And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is ^(CE)the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.”

On the Mountain with God

⁹Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, ¹⁰and they ^(CF)saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of ^(CG)sapphire stone, and it was like the ^(CH)very^[k] heavens in its clarity. ¹¹But on the nobles of the children of Israel He ^(CI)did not ^[l]lay His hand. So ^(CJ)they saw God, and they ^(CK)ate and drank.

¹²Then the Lord said to Moses, ^(CL)“Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you ^(CM)tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.”

¹³So Moses arose with ^(CN)his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. ¹⁴And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Indeed, Aaron and ^(CO)Hur are with you. If any man has a difficulty, let him go to them.” ¹⁵Then Moses went up into the mountain, and ^(CP)a cloud covered the mountain.

¹⁶Now ^(CQ)the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. ¹⁷The sight of the glory of the Lord was like ^(CR)a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. ¹⁸So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And ^(CS)Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.