Exodus 23

1 Thou shalt not receive the voice of a lie: neither shalt thou join thy hand to bear false witness for a wicked person.

You do not lift up a vain report; you do not put your hand with a wicked man to be a violent witness.

2 Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do evil: neither shalt thou yield in judgment, to the opinion of the most part, to stray from the truth.

You are not after many to [do] evil, nor do you testify concerning a strife, to turn aside after many to cause [others] to turn aside;

3 Neither shalt thou favour a poor man in judgment.

and you do not honor a poor man in his strife.

4 If thou meet thy enemy’s ox or ass going astray, bring it back to him.

When you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you certainly turn it back to him;

5 If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lie underneath his burden, thou shalt not pass by, but shalt lift him up with him.

when you see the donkey of him who is hating you crouching under its burden, then you have ceased from leaving [it] to it—you certainly leave [it] with him.

6 Thou shalt not go aside in the poor man’s judgment.

You do not turn aside the judgment of your poor in his strife;

7 Thou shalt fly lying. The innocent and just person thou shalt not put to death: because I abhor the wicked.

you keep far off from a false matter, and you do not slay an innocent and righteous man; for I do not justify a wicked man.

8 Neither shalt thou take bribes, which even blind the wise, and pervert the words of the just.

And you do not take a bribe, for the bribe binds the open-[eyed] and perverts the words of the righteous.

9 Thou shalt not molest a stranger, for you know the hearts of strangers: for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.

And you do not oppress a sojourner, since you have known the soul of the sojourner, for you have been sojourners in the land of Egypt.

10 Six years thou shalt sow thy ground, and shalt gather the corn thereof.

And [for] six years you sow your land and have gathered its increase;

11 But the seventh year thou shalt let it alone, and suffer it to rest, that the poor of thy people may eat, and whatsoever shall be left, let the beasts of the field eat it: so shalt thou do with thy vineyard and thy oliveyard.

and [in] the seventh you release it, and have left it, and the needy of your people have eaten, and the beast of the field eats their remainder; so you do to your vineyard [and] to your olive-yard.

12 Six days thou shalt work: the seventh day thou shalt cease, that thy ox and thy ass may rest: and the son of thy handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed.

Six days you do your work, and on the seventh day you rest, so that your ox and your donkey rest, and the son of your handmaid and the sojourner is refreshed;

13 Keep all things that I have said to you. And by the name of strange gods you shall not swear, neither shall it be heard out of your mouth.

and in all that which I have said to you—take heed; and you do not mention the name of other gods; it is not heard on your mouth.

14 Three times every year you shall celebrate feasts to me.

You keep a celebration to Me three times in a year:

15 Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month of new corn, when thou didst come forth out of Egypt: thou shalt not appear empty before me.

you keep the Celebration of Unleavened Things (you eat unleavened things [for] seven days as I have commanded you, at the time appointed [in] the month of Abib; for in it you have come forth out of Egypt, and you do not appear [in] My presence empty);

16 And the feast of the harvest of the firstfruits of thy work, whatsoever thou hast sown in the field. The feast also in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in all thy corn out of the field.

and the Celebration of Harvest, the first-fruits of your works which you sow in the field; and the Celebration of the Ingathering in the outgoing of the year, in your gathering your works out of the field.

17 Thrice a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God.

Three times in a year all your males appear before [the] face of the Lord YHWH.

18 Thou shalt not sacrifice the blood of my victim upon leaven, neither shall the fat of my solemnity remain until the morning.

You do not sacrifice the blood of My sacrifice on a fermented thing, and the fat of My festival does not remain until morning;

19 Thou shalt carry the firstfruits of the corn of thy ground to the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in the milk of his dam.

the beginning of the first-fruits of your ground you bring into the house of your God YHWH; you do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

20 Behold I will send my angel, who shall go before thee, and keep thee in thy journey, and bring thee into the place that I have prepared.

Behold, I am sending a Messenger before you to keep you in the way, and to bring you to the place which I have prepared;

21 Take notice of him, and hear his voice, and do not think him one to be contemned: for he will not forgive when thou hast sinned, and my name is in him.

be watchful because of His presence, and listen to His voice, do not rebel against Him, for He does not bear with your transgression, for My Name [is] in His heart;

22 But if thou wilt hear his voice, and do all that I speak, I will be an enemy to thy enemies, and will afflict them that afflict thee.

for if you listen diligently to His voice, and have done all that which I speak, then I have been at enmity with your enemies, and have distressed those distressing you.

23 And my angel shall go before thee, and shall bring thee in unto the Amorrhite, and the Hethite, and the Pherezite, and the Chanaanite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite, whom I will destroy.

For My Messenger goes before you, and has brought you to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, and I have cut them off.

24 Thou shalt not adore their gods, nor serve them. Thou shalt not do their works, but shalt destroy them, and break their statues.

You do not bow yourself to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their doings, but utterly devote them, and thoroughly break their standing pillars.

25 And you shall serve the Lord your God, that I may bless your bread and your waters, and may take away sickness from the midst of thee.

And you have served your God YHWH, and He has blessed your bread and your water, and I have turned aside sickness from your heart;

26 There shall not be one fruitless nor barren in thy land: I will fill the number of thy days.

there is not a miscarrying and barren one in your land; I fulfill the number of your days.

27 I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come: and will turn the backs of all thy enemies before thee.

I send My terror before you, and I have put to death all the people among whom you come, and I have given the neck of all your enemies to you.

28 Sending out hornets before, that shall drive away the Hevite, and the Chanaanite, and the Hethite, before thou come in.

And I have sent the hornet before you, and it has cast out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you;

29 I will not cast them out from thy face in one year: lest the land be brought into a wilderness, and the beasts multiply against thee.

I do not cast them out from before you in one year, lest the land be a desolation, and the beast of the field has multiplied against you;

30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, till thou be increased, and dost possess the land.

I cast them out little [by] little from before you, until you are fruitful, and have inherited the land.

31 And I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea to the sea of the Palestines, and from the desert to the river: I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hands, and will drive them out from before you.

And I have set your border from the Red Sea, even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River; for I give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you have cast them out from before you.

32 Thou shalt not enter into league with them, nor with their gods.

You do not make a covenant with them and with their gods;

33 Let them not dwell in thy land, lest perhaps thy make thee sin against me, if thou serve their god: which undoubtedly will be a scandal to thee.

they do not dwell in your land, lest they cause you to sin against Me when you serve their gods, when it becomes a snare to you.”