Exodus 23
1 “Do not spread a false report. Do not join hands with the wicked to be an unjust witness.
2 Do not follow the crowd in doing evil. In a lawsuit, do not give testimony that sides with the crowd and twists justice.
3 Do not show favoritism to the poor in his lawsuit.
4 If you find your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to bring it back to him.
5 If you see the donkey of someone who hates you lying under its load, do not leave him without help. Be sure to help him free the animal.
6 Do not deny your poor neighbor justice in his lawsuit.
7 Keep far away from every false word. Do not put the innocent and righteous to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.
8 Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who can see and twists the words of the righteous.
9 Do not oppress the foreign resident. You know what life is like for a foreign resident, because you were foreign residents in the land of Egypt.
10 For six years you will sow your land and gather its produce.
11 But in the seventh year you will let it rest and leave it untouched, so that the poor among your people may eat, and whatever they leave, the wild animals may eat. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.”
12 “For six days you will do your work, but on the seventh day you will rest, so that your ox and donkey may rest, and the son of your slave woman and the foreign resident may catch their breath.
13 Keep everything I have told you. Do not mention the names of other gods; do not let them be heard from your mouth.
14 Three times a year you will celebrate a festival for me.
15 Keep the Festival of Unleavened Bread: for seven days eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, because you came out of Egypt in that month. Do not appear before me empty-handed.
16 Also celebrate the Festival of Harvest, with the firstfruits of your labor from what you sow in the field, and the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in the fruit of your labor from the field.
17 Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Lord, the LORD.
18 Do not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, and do not let the fat from my festival remain until morning.
19 Bring the first and best of your land’s produce to the house of the LORD your God. Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
20 I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared.
21 Pay attention to him and listen to his voice. Do not rebel against him, for he will not forgive your rebellion, because my name is in him.
22 But if you listen carefully to his voice and do everything I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.”
23 “When my angel goes ahead of you and brings you to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, I will wipe them out.
24 Do not bow down to their gods or serve them, and do not follow their practices. Instead, tear down their altars completely and smash their sacred pillars.
25 Serve the LORD your God, and he will bless your bread and water. I will take sickness away from among you.
26 No woman in your land will miscarry or be barren. I will give you the full number of your days.
27 I will send my terror ahead of you and throw every people you encounter into confusion. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and flee from you.
28 I will send hornets ahead of you, and they will drive the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites out of your way.
29 I will not drive them out from before you in a single year, so that the land does not become desolate and the wild animals do not multiply against you.
30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have grown in number and taken possession of the land.
31 I will set your borders from the Sea of Reeds to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the river. I will hand the inhabitants of the land over to you, and you will drive them out from before you.
32 Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods.
33 They must not live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me. If you serve their gods, it will become a trap for you.”
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