Exodus 23:1-9

Modern English Version

Laws of Justice and Mercy

23 You must not give a false report. Do not join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness.

² You must not follow the masses to do evil, and do not testify in a dispute that agrees with the crowd to pervert justice. ³ You must not show partiality to a poor man in his dispute.

⁴ If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely return it to him. ⁵ If you see the donkey of someone who hates you lying under its burden, you must not ignore it; you must surely help with him.

⁶ You shall not turn justice away from your poor in his dispute. ⁷ Keep far away from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and the righteous, for I will not justify the wicked.

⁸ You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and subverts the words of the righteous.

⁹ Also you shall not oppress a foreigner, for you know the life of a foreigner, seeing you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.