Exodus 23 - Legacy Standard Bible

Exodus 23

“You shall not bear a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. 2 You shall not follow the masses in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a case so as to turn aside after the masses in order to cause justice to be turned aside; 3 nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his case. 4 “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him. 5 If 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 “You shall not cause the justice due to your needy brother to be turned aside in his case. 7 Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not justify the guilty. 8 “And you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just. 9 “And you shall not oppress a sojourner, since you yourselves know the soul of a sojourner, for you also were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Judgments About Work and Rest

10 “Now you shall sow your land for six years and gather in its produce, 11 but on the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. Thus you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove. 12 “Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your maidservant, as well as your sojourner, may refresh themselves. 13 Now concerning everything which I have said to you, beware; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth.

Judgments About National Feasts

14 “Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me. 15 You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. And none shall appear before Me empty-handed. 16 Also you shall keep the 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 when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field. 17 Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh. 18 “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor is the fat of My feast to remain overnight until morning. 19 “You shall bring the choice first fruits of your ground into the house of Yahweh your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.

Yahweh Will Drive Out Israel’s Enemies

20 “Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to keep you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Keep watch of yourself before him and listen to his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My name is in him. 22 But if you truly listen to his voice and do all that I speak, then 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 in to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I will annihilate them. 24 You shall not worship their gods, you shall not serve them, and you shall not do according to their deeds; but you shall utterly pull them down and shatter their sacred pillars in pieces. 25 But you shall serve Yahweh your God, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst. 26 There shall be no one miscarrying or barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. 27 I will send My terror ahead of you and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28 And I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you. 29 I will not drive them out before you in a single year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. 30 I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take the land as an inheritance. 31 And I will set your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River; for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out from before you. 32 You shall cut no covenant with them or with their gods. 33 They shall not live in your land, lest they make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”