Exodus 23:1-21 ▼

1 |You are not to spread a false report, nor are you to join forces with the wicked to be a malicious witness.

2 You are not to follow the majority in doing wrong, and you are not to testify in a lawsuit so as to follow the majority and pervert justice.

3 You are not to show partiality to a poor man in his lawsuit.

4 |If you come across your enemy's ox or donkey wandering off, you are to certainly return it to him.

5 If you see your enemy's donkey lying helpless under its load, you must not abandon it; rather, you are certainly to return it to him.

6 |You are not to pervert justice for the poor among you in their lawsuits.

7 Stay far away from a false charge, and don't kill the innocent or the righteous, because I won't acquit the guilty.

8 You are not to take a bribe because a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and distorts the words of the righteous.

9 You are not to oppress the resident alien, because you were aliens in the land of Egypt.|

10 |You are to sow your land and gather its crops for six years,

11 but you are to let it rest the seventh year, leaving it unplanted. The poor of your people may eat from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave. You are to do the same with your vineyards and olive groves.

12 You are to do your work for six days, but on the seventh day you are to refrain from work so that your ox and donkey may rest, and so the son of your maidservant and the alien may be refreshed.

13 |Be careful about everything I've told you, and don't mention the name of other gods. Don't let them be heard in your mouth!|

14 |Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival for me.

15 You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you are to eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month Abib, because in it you came out of Egypt. No one is to appear before me empty handed.

16 You are to observe the Festival of Harvest, celebrating the first fruits of your work in planting the field, and the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather the fruit of your work from the field.

17 Three times a year all your males shall appear in the presence of the Lord GOD.|

18 |You are not to offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, and you are not to let the fat portion of my sacrifice remain overnight until morning.

19 |You are to bring the best of the first fruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. |You are not to boil a young goat in its mother's milk.|

20 |Look, I'm sending an angel in front of you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place I've prepared.

21 Be careful! Be sure to obey him. Don't rebel against him, because he won't forgive your transgression, since my Name is in him.