Exodus 23

Tree of Life Version

23 “Do not to spread a false report. Do not join hands with the wicked by becoming a malicious witness. ² “Do not follow a crowd to do evil. Nor are you to testify in a case, to follow a crowd and pervert justice. ³ On the other hand, nor should you takes sides with a poor man in his case.

⁴ “If you find your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you must surely bring it back to him again. ⁵ If you see the donkey of the one that hates you lying down under its burden, do not leave it. Rather, you are to release it with him.

⁶ “You are not to pervert justice to your poor in his dispute. ⁷ Stay far away from a false charge. Do not kill the innocent and the righteous, for I will not justify the guilty. ⁸ Take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight, and perverts the words of the righteous.

⁹ “Do not oppress an outsider, for you know the heart of an outsider, since you were outsiders in the land of Egypt.

¹⁰ “For six years you are to sow your land and gather the increase. ¹¹ But during the seventh year you are to let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor among your people may eat. Whatever they leave behind, the animals of the field may eat. You are to deal with your vineyard and your olive grove in the same way.

¹² “You are to do your work for six days, but on the seventh day you will rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and also the son of your handmaid and the outsider may be refreshed.

¹³ “With all the things that I have said to you, take heed. Make no mention of the names of other gods, and do not let them be heard in your mouth.

Three Harvest Festivals

¹⁴ “Three times in the year you are to ce-lebrate a festival for Me. ¹⁵ You are to observe the Feast of Matzot.^[a] For seven days you will eat matzot as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Aviv, for that is when you came out from Egypt. No one is to appear before Me empty-handed. ¹⁶ Also you are to observe the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors that you sow in the field, as well as the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your crops from the field. ¹⁷ Three times in the year all your men are to appear before Adonai Elohim.

¹⁸ “Do not offer the blood of My sacrifice with hametz. Nor is the fat of My feast to remain out all night until the morning. ¹⁹ Bring the choicest firstfruits of your land into the House of Adonai your God.

“Do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

²⁰ “Behold, I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and to bring you into the place that I have prepared. ²¹ Watch for Him and listen to His voice. Do not rebel against Him because He will not pardon your transgression, for My Name is in Him. ²² But if you listen closely to His voice, and do everything I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. ²³ For My angel will go before you, and bring you to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and the Jebusites, and I will cut them off. ²⁴ You are not to bow down to their gods or serve them, or do what they do. Rather, you are to utterly overthrow them, and break their pillars in pieces. ²⁵ You are to serve Adonai your God, and He will bless your food and your water. Moreover I will take sickness away from your midst. ²⁶ None will miscarry nor be barren in your land, and I will fill up the number of your days.

²⁷ “I will send My terror before you and throw all the people to whom you will come into panic, and make all your enemies turn their backs to you. ²⁸ I will send the hornet before you, which will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites and the Hittites, from before you. ²⁹ I will not drive them out from before you in a single year. Otherwise the land would become desolate, and the animals of the field will multiply against you. ³⁰ But little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you are fruitful. Then you will possess the land.

³¹ “I will set your border from the Sea of Reeds to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates River. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you are to drive them out before you. ³² Make no covenant with them or with their gods. ³³ They must not dwell in your land and cause you to sin against Me, for if you worship their gods, they will be a snare to you.”