Exodus 23:1-21 ▼

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.

12 Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your ass may rest and the son of your handmaid; and that the stranger in your towns may be refreshed.

13 Take heed of all things that I have said to you; and make no mention of the name of false idols, neither think of them.

14 Three times in the year you shall celebrate a festival for me.

15 You shall keep the festival of the unleavened bread (you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out of the land of Egypt; you shall not appear before me without a gift offering:)

16 And the festival of the harvest, the first fruits of your grain which you sow in the field; and the festival of the ingathering, which is at the end of the year, when you have gathered your crop from the field.

17 Three times in the year all your gift offerings shall appear before the LORD your God.

18 You shall not offer the blood of a sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of the festival sacrifices remain until morning.

19 The best of the first fruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not cook the meat of a kid in its mother's milk.

20 Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you into the land which I have prepared.

21 Heed him and obey his voice; do not strive against him; perhaps he will not pardon your transgressions; for my name is upon him.