Exodus 23:1-33 (New American Standard)

Sundry Laws

1 "¹You shall not bear a false report ; do not join your hand with a wicked man to be a ²malicious witness. 2 "You shall not follow ^athe masses in doing evil, nor shall you ^btestify in a dispute so as to turn aside after ^ca multitude in order to ³pervert justice; 3 ⁴nor shall you ^dbe partial to a poor man in his dispute. 4 "⁵If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him. 5 "⁶If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it to him, you shall surely release it with him. 6 "⁷You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute. 7 "⁸Keep far from a false charge, and ⁹do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for ¹⁰I will not acquit the guilty. 8 "¹¹You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and ^esubverts the cause of the just. 9 "¹²You shall not oppress a ^fstranger, since you yourselves know the ^gfeelings of a ^hstranger, for you also were ⁱstrangers in the land of Egypt.

The Sabbath and Land

10 "¹³You shall sow your land for six years and gather in its yield, 11 but on the seventh year you shall let it ^jrest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat ; and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove. 12 "¹⁴Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as ^kyour stranger, may refresh themselves. 13 "Now ¹⁵concerning everything which I have said to you, be on your guard ; and ¹⁶do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard ^lfrom your mouth.

Three National Feasts

14 "¹⁷Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me. 15 "You shall observe ¹⁸the Feast of Unleavened Bread ; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the ¹⁹month Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. And ^m20none shall appear before Me empty-handed. 16 "Also you shall observe ²¹the Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field ; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year ²²when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field. 17 "²³Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord ⁿGOD. 18 "²⁴You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread ; ²⁵nor is the fat of My ^ofeast to remain overnight until morning. 19 "You shall bring ²⁶the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the LORD your God. "²⁷ You are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.

Conquest of the Land

20 "Behold, I am going to send ²⁸an angel before you to guard you along the way and ²⁹to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 "Be on your guard before him and obey his voice ; ³⁰do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since ³¹My name is in him. 22 "But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then ³²I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 23 "³³For My angel will go before you and bring you in to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites ; and I will completely destroy them. 24 "³⁴You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds ; ³⁵but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their ³⁶sacred pillars in pieces. 25 "³⁷But you shall serve the LORD your God, ^pand He will bless your bread and your water ; and ³⁸I will remove sickness from your midst. 26 "There shall be no one miscarrying or ³⁹barren in your land ; ⁴⁰I will fulfill the number of your days. 27 "I will ⁴¹send My terror ahead of you, and ⁴²throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will ⁴³make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28 "I will send ⁴⁴hornets ahead of you so that they will ⁴⁵drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you. 29 "⁴⁶I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. 30 "I will drive them out before you ⁴⁷little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land. 31 "⁴⁸I will fix your boundary from the ^qRed Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates; ⁴⁹for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will ⁵⁰drive them out before you. 32 "⁵¹You shall ^rmake no covenant with them ⁵²or with their gods. 33 "⁵³They shall not live in your land, because they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, ⁵⁴it will surely be a snare to you."