Exodus 23

1You shall not spread a false report. Do not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness.

2You shall not follow the many to do evil, and you shall not testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after the many, to pervert justice.

3And you shall not show partiality to a poor man in his lawsuit.

4If you come upon your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you must surely return it to him.

5If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its load, and would refrain from helping him, you must surely help with him.

6You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor person in his dispute.

7Keep far from a false matter, and do not kill the innocent and the righteous, for I will not justify the wicked.

8And you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and twists the words of the righteous.

9You shall not oppress a sojourner, and you yourselves know the soul of the sojourner, because you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

10For six years you shall sow your land and gather its produce.

11But in the seventh year you shall let it rest and leave it alone, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the wild animals of the field may eat. You shall do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

12For six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the sojourner may be refreshed.

13In all that I have said to you, be careful; and the name of other gods you shall not mention—it shall not be heard on your lips.

14Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me.

15You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out from Egypt. And no one shall appear before me empty-handed.

16and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors, of what you sow in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors from the field.

17Three times in the year every male among you shall appear before the Lord Yahweh.

18You shall not sacrifice the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, and the fat of my feast shall not remain until morning.

19The first of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of Yahweh your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

20Behold, I am sending an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.

21Be on your guard before him, and listen to his voice. Do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, because my name is within him.

22But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

23For my angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.

24You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; rather, you shall surely tear them down and surely shatter their pillars.

25You shall serve Yahweh your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will remove sickness from your midst.

26There shall not be one miscarrying or barren in your land; I will fill up the number of your days.

27I will send my terror ahead of you, and I will throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

28And I will send the hornet ahead of you, and it will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you.

29I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild animals of the field become too numerous against you.

30Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land.

31And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River; for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out from before you.

32You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods.

33They must not dwell in your land, lest they cause you to sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely become a snare to you.