Exodus 23:15-33

15 Thou shalt keep the solemnity of therf loaves; seven days thou shalt eat therf bread, as I commanded to thee, in the time of [the] month of new things, when thou wentest out of Egypt; thou shalt not appear void in my sight. (Thou shalt keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded to thee, at the time of the month of Abib, when thou wentest out of Egypt; and thou shalt not appear before me empty-handed.)

16 And thou shalt keep the solemnity of the month of the first things of thy works, (of) whatever things thou hast sown in the field. Also thou shalt keep the solemnity in the going out of the year, when thou hast gathered all thy fruits of the field. (And thou shalt keep the Feast of the First Fruits of thy works, with whatever things thou hast sown in the field. And thou shalt keep the Feast of Ingathering , when thou hast gathered in all thy fruits from the field, in the going out of the year.)

17 (So) Thrice in the year all thy male kind shall appear before thy Lord God.

18 Thou shalt not offer the blood of thy slain sacrifice on sourdough; neither the fatness of my solemnity shall dwell till to the morrowtide. (Thou shalt not offer the blood of my slain sacrifice with anything made with yeast; and the fat of my sacrifice for any Feast shall not remain until the morning.)

19 Thou shalt bear the first things of the fruits of thy land into the house of thy Lord God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in the milk of his mother

20 Lo! I send mine angel, that shall go before thee, and shall keep thee in the way, and shall lead thee to the place which I have made ready to thee. (Lo! I shall send an angel before thee, and he shall keep thee safe on the way, and he shall lead thee to the place which I have prepared for thee.)

21 Take thou heed to him, and hear thou his voice, neither guess thou him to be despised, or despisable; for he shall not forgive (thee), when thou sinnest, and my name is in him (for my authority is with him)

22 For if thou hearest his voice, and doest all things which I speak (But if thou listenest to his voice, and doest all the things which I say to thee), I shall be (an) enemy to thine enemies, and I shall torment them, that torment thee;

23 and mine angel shall go before thee, and he shall lead in thee to Amorites (and he shall lead thee to the Amorites), and Hittites, and Perizzites, and Canaanites, and Hivites, and Jebusites, which I shall break, or destroy.

24 Thou shalt not honour the gods of them, neither thou shalt worship them; thou shalt not do the works of them (thou shalt not follow their rites), but thou shalt destroy their gods, and thou shalt break the images of them.

25 And ye shall serve to your Lord God, (so) that I (can) bless thy loaves, and thy waters, and do away sickness from the midst of thee;

26 neither a woman unfruitful, neither barren, shall be in thy land (no unfruitful, or barren, woman shall be in thy land); (and) I shall fulfill the number of thy days.

27 I shall send my dread into thy before-going (I shall send the fear of me before thee), and I shall slay all the people, to which thou shalt enter, and I shall turn the backs of all thine enemies before thee;

28 and I shall send out before thee crabrones, or stinging flies, that shall drive away (the) Hivite, and Canaanite, and Hittite, before that thou enter.

29 (But) I shall not cast them out from thy face in one year, lest the land be turned into wilderness, and beasts increase against thee;

30 little and little I shall cast them out from thy sight, till thou be increased, and wield the land.

31 Forsooth and I shall set thy terms from the Red Sea till to the sea of Palestines, and from the desert till to the flood (And I shall set thy borders from the Red Sea unto the Sea of the Philistines, or the Mediterranean Sea, and from the wilderness unto the Euphrates River). I shall give (in)to your hands the dwellers of the land, and I shall cast them out from your sight;

32 thou shalt not make bond of peace with them, neither with their gods. (thou shalt not make a covenant with them, nor with their gods.)

33 Dwell they not in thy land, lest peradventure they make thee to do sin against me; if thou servest their gods, which thing certainly shall be to thee into cause of stumbling. (They shall not continue to live in thy land, lest they make thee to sin against me; for if thou servest their gods, that certainly shall become a cause of stumbling for thee.)

Exodus 23:15-33 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 23

This chapter contains several laws, chiefly judicial, relating to the civil polity of Israel, as concerning witness borne and judgment made of cases in courts of judicature, without any respect to poor or rich, and without the influence of a bribe, Ex 23:1-3,6-8, concerning doing good to an enemy in case any of his cattle go astray, or fall under their burden, Ex 23:4,5, and of the oppression of a stranger, Ex 23:9, and then follow others concerning the sabbath of the seventh year, and of the seventh day, with a caution against the use of the names of idols, Ex 23:10-13, next are laws concerning the appearance of all their males at the three feasts, Ex 23:14-17, and concerning the slaying of the sacrifice of the passover, and bringing the first of the firstfruits of the land, Ex 23:18,19 and then a promise is made of sending an angel to them to bring them into the land of Canaan, where they should carefully avoid all idolatry, and show a just indignation against it, and serve the Lord, and then it would be well with them, Ex 23:20-26, and particularly it is promised, that the Lord would send his fear, and his hornets, before them, to destroy the inhabitants of the land, and drive out the rest by little and little, until they should possess the utmost borders of it, which are fixed, Ex 23:27-31, and the chapter is concluded with a direction not to make a covenant with these people, or their gods, nor suffer them to dwell among them, lest they should be a snare unto them, Ex 23:32,33.