Exodus 23:1-11 ▼

1 YOU shall not confirm a false report: do not stretch out your hand taking oaths with the guilty to become a false witness for him.

2 You shall not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shall you testify in a lawsuit so as to pervert justice, in order to side with a multitude which deviates from justice.

3 Neither shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.

4 If you meet your enemy's ox or his ass going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.

5 If you should see the ass of your enemy lying under its burden, and you are unwilling to help him lift it up, you should surely help him to lift it up nevertheless.

6 You shall not pervert the justice due to a poor man in his lawsuit.

7 Keep far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous you shall not slay; for I will not justify the wicked.

8 And you shall take no bribe; for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise in judgment and perverts the words of the righteous.

9 You shall not oppress strangers: for you know the life of a stranger; you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

10 For six years you shall sow your land and shall gather in the crops thereof:

11 But the seventh year you shall leave it fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat of the fruits of it; and what is left the wild beasts may eat. You shall do in like manner with your vineyard and with your olive yard.