Exodus
Chapter 23
1 Do not spread false rumors or join hands with the wicked to be an unfair witness.
2 Do not follow a crowd to do wrong; nor should you agree with many to make unfair decisions.
3 Do not favor a poor man in his case.
4 If you find your enemy’s ox or donkey lost, you must return it to him.
5 If you see your enemy’s donkey lying down under its load, and you might avoid helping, you must help anyway.
6 Do not treat the poor unfairly in legal matters.
7 Stay away from lies and don’t kill innocent or good people because I will not let the guilty go unpunished.
8 Do not accept any gifts; gifts blind the wise and twist the words of the good people.
9 Do not treat foreigners badly because you know how it feels to be a foreigner, as you were foreigners in Egypt.
10 For six years you should plant your land and collect its crops.
11 In the seventh year, let the land rest and be still, so the poor can eat. Whatever they don’t eat, the wild animals will. Do the same with your vineyard and olive grove.
12 Work for six days, and rest on the seventh day, so your ox, donkey, your servant’s child, and any foreigner can also rest and be refreshed.
13 Be careful to follow everything I have told you, and do not talk about other gods or even mention their names.
14 Celebrate a feast for me three times a year.
15 You must celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread by eating bread without yeast for seven days, as I have told you, during the set time in the month of Abib, because that is when you left Egypt. No one should come to see me without bringing something.
16 Celebrate the Harvest Festival when you first collect crops from the fields, and the Gathering Festival at the year’s end when you gather your work from the fields.
17 Three times a year, all your men must come before God.
18 Do not give God a sacrifice mixed with yeast, and do not keep the fat from my offering until morning.
19 Bring the first of your harvest to God’s house. Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
20 Look, I am sending an Angel ahead of you to protect you on the journey and to lead you to the place I have prepared.
21 Be careful around him, listen to what he says, and do not make him angry, because he will not forgive your wrongdoings; for he represents me.
22 If you really listen to his voice and do everything I say, then I will be against your enemies and oppose those who oppose you.
23 My angel will go ahead of you and lead you to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will eliminate them.
24 Do not bow down to their gods, do not serve them, or follow their ways; instead, you must completely destroy them and break their statues.
25 You will serve God, and he will bless your food and your water; I will remove sickness from among you.
26 No animal will miscarry or be infertile in your land; I will allow you to live a full life.
27 I will make people afraid of you and destroy all the people you meet, and I will make all your enemies run away from you.
28 I will send hornets ahead of you to chase away the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite.
29 I will not force them out from in front of you in one year; if I do, the land may become empty, and the wild animals may become too many for you.
30 Step by step, I will push them out before you, until you grow and take over the land.
31 I will define your borders from the Red Sea to the Philistine Sea, and from the desert to the river. I will give the people living there to you, and you will force them out.
32 Do not make a treaty with them or their gods.
33 They must not live in your land, or they will make you sin against me; if you worship their gods, it will certainly trap you.