Exodus 23:1-17 ▼

1 “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.

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.

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.