EXODUS 23

You shall not spread a false report; you shall not join hands with a wicked man, to be a malicious witness. 2 You shall not follow a crowd into evils; and you shall not give witness in a case, turning after a crowd, so as to pervert judgment; 3 nor shall you show favour to a poor man in his case.

4 If you meet your enemy's ox or ass going astray, you must bring it back to him. 5 If you see the ass of someone who hates you lying under its burden, though you do not want to lift it for him, you must certainly help him to lift it.

6 You shall not pervert the judgment due to your poor in his case. 7 Keep away from a false matter; and do not kill the innocent and the just, for I will not acquit the wicked. 8 And you shall take no bribe; for a bribe blinds the open-eyed, and twists the words of the just.

9 And you shall not oppress a settler; for you know the life of a settler for you were settlers in the land of Egypt.

10 And for six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce; 11 but during the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow so that the needy among your people may eat; and what they leave, the wild animals of the fields may eat. You shall do the same with your vineyard and your oliveyard.

12 For six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, in order that your ox and your ass may rest, and your handmaid's son and the settler may be refreshed. 13 And observe all that I have said to you. And do not mention the name of other gods; it shall not be heard in your mouth.

14 Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. 15 You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for then you came out of Egypt; and my face shall not be seen by the empty-handed; 16 and the Feast of Harvest, of the first fruits of your labours, which you have sown in the fields; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruits of your labours from the fields. 17 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yehowah.

18 You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened; and the fat of my feast shall not remain overnight till the morning.

19 You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of Yehowah your God.

You shall not cook a kid in its mother's milk.

20 See, I send an angel before you to protect you on the road, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Take notice of his face, and obey his voice; do not provoke him, for he will not pardon your transgressions; for my name is within him. 22 For if you listen attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

23 When my angel goes before you, and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites, the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I cut them off, 24 you shall not bow to their gods or serve them or do according to their works; but you shall utterly destroy them, and smash their pillars. 25 And you shall serve Yehowah your God, and he shall bless your food and your drink; and I will take sickness out of your midst. 26 No one shall miscarry or be childless in your land; I will fulfil the number of your days. 27 I will send my terror before you and throw all the people among whom you come into confusion, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs* to you. 28 And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you. 29 I will not drive them out before you in one year, or else the land will become desolate and the wild animals of the fields will multiply against you. 30 I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and inherit the land. 31 And I will set your boundary from the Sea of Reeds as far as the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the river Euphrates; for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hands, and you shall drive them out before you. 32 You shall not make a covenant with them or their gods. 33 They shall not live in your land, or else they will make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will be a snare to you. * lit necks