Exodus 23
23
Equal Justice for All
The Lord said:
1 #
Ex 20.16; Lv 19.11,12; Dt 5.20. Don't spread harmful rumors or help a criminal by giving false evidence.
2Always tell the truth in court, even if everyone else is#23.2 everyone else is: Or “the authorities are.” dishonest and stands in the way of justice. 3#Lv 19.15. And don't favor the poor, simply because they are poor.
4 #
Dt 22.1-4. If you find an ox or a donkey that has wandered off, take it back where it belongs, even if the owner is your enemy.
5If a donkey is overloaded and falls down, you must do what you can to help, even if it belongs to someone who doesn't like you.#23.5 you: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 5.
6 #
Lv 19.15; Dt 16.18,19. Make sure that the poor are given equal justice in court. 7Don't bring false charges against anyone or sentence an innocent person to death. I won't forgive you if you do.
8Don't accept bribes. Judges are blinded and justice is twisted by bribes.
9 #
Ex 22.21; Lv 19.33,34; Dt 24.17,18; 27.14-26. Don't mistreat foreigners. You were foreigners in Egypt, and you know what it is like.
Laws for the Sabbath
The Lord said:
10 #
Lv 25.1-7. Plant and harvest your crops for six years, 11but let the land rest during the seventh year. The poor are to eat what they want from your fields, vineyards, and olive trees during that year, and when they have all they want from your fields, leave the rest for wild animals.
12 #
Ex 20.9-11; 31.15; 34.21; 35.2; Lv 23.3; Dt 5.13,14. Work the first six days of the week, but rest and relax on the seventh day. This law is not only for you, but for your oxen, donkeys, and slaves, as well as for any foreigners among you.
13Make certain that you obey everything I have said. Don't pray to other gods or even mention their names.
Three Annual Festivals
(Exodus 34.18-26; Deuteronomy 16.1-17)
The Lord said:
14Celebrate three festivals each year in my honor.
15 #
Ex 12.14-20; Lv 23.6-8; Nu 28.17-25. Celebrate the Festival of Thin Bread by eating bread made without yeast, just as I have commanded.#23.15 as I have commanded: See 12.14-20. Do this at the proper time during the month of Abib,#23.15 Abib: See the note at 12.2. because it is the month when you left Egypt. And make certain that everyone brings the proper offerings.
16 #
Lv 23.15-21; Nu 28.26-31;
Lv 23.39-43. Celebrate the Harvest Festival#23.16 Harvest Festival: Traditionally called the “Festival of Weeks” and known in New Testament times as “Pentecost.” each spring when you start harvesting your wheat, and celebrate the Festival of Shelters#23.16 Festival of Shelters: The Hebrew text has “Festival of Ingathering” (so also in 34.22), which was the final harvesting of crops and fruits before the autumn rains began. But the usual name was “Festival of Shelters.” each autumn when you pick your fruit.
17Your men must come to these three festivals each year to worship me.
18Do not offer bread made with yeast when you sacrifice an animal to me. And make sure that the fat of the animal is burned that same day.
19 #
Dt 26.2; Ex 34.26;
Dt 14.21. Each year bring the best part of your first harvest to the place of worship.
Don't boil a young goat in its mother's milk.
A Promise and a Warning
The Lord said:
20I am sending an angel to protect you and to lead you into the land I have ready for you. 21Carefully obey everything the angel says, because I am giving him complete authority, and he won't tolerate rebellion. 22If you faithfully obey him, I will be a fierce enemy of your enemies. 23My angel will lead you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. 24Don't worship their gods or follow their customs. Instead, destroy their idols and shatter their stone images.
25Worship only me, the Lord your God! I will bless you with plenty of food and water and keep you strong. 26Your women will give birth to healthy children, and everyone will live a long life.
27I will terrify those nations and make your enemies so confused that they will run from you. 28I will make the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites panic as you approach. 29But I won't do all this in the first year, because the land would become poor, and wild animals would be everywhere. 30Instead, I will force out your enemies little by little and give your nation time to grow strong enough to take over the land.
31I will see that your borders reach from the Red Sea#23.31 Red Sea: Hebrew yam suph, here referring to the Gulf of Aqaba, since the term is extended to include the northeastern arm of the Red Sea (see also the note at 13.18). to the Euphrates River and from the Mediterranean Sea to the desert. I will let you defeat the people who live there, and you will force them out of the land. 32But you must not make any agreements with them or with their gods. 33Don't let them stay in your land. They will trap you into sinning against me and worshiping their gods.
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Exodus 23: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Exodus 23
23
1‘Thou dost not lift up a vain report; thou dost not put thy hand with a wicked man to be a violent witness.
2‘Thou art not after many to evil, nor dost thou testify concerning a strife, to turn aside after many to cause [others] to turn aside;
3and a poor man thou dost not honour in his strife.
4‘When thou meetest thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou dost certainly turn it back to him;
5when thou seest the ass of him who is hating thee crouching under its burden, then thou hast ceased from leaving [it] to it — thou dost certainly leave [it] with him.
6‘Thou dost not turn aside the judgment of thy needy one in his strife;
7from a false matter thou dost keep far off, and an innocent and righteous man thou dost not slay; for I do not justify a wicked man.
8‘And a bribe thou dost not take; for the bribe bindeth the open-[eyed], and perverteth the words of the righteous.
9‘And a sojourner thou dost not oppress, and ye — ye have known the soul of the sojourner, for sojourners ye have been in the land of Egypt.
10‘And six years thou dost sow thy land, and hast gathered its increase;
11and the seventh thou dost release it, and hast left it, and the needy of thy people have eaten, and their leaving doth the beast of the field eat; so dost thou to thy vineyard — to thine oliveyard.
12‘Six days thou dost do thy work, and on the seventh day thou dost rest, so that thine ox and thine ass doth rest, and the son of thine handmaid and the sojourner is refreshed;
13and in all that which I have said unto you ye do take heed; and the name of other gods ye do not mention; it is not heard on thy mouth.
14‘Three times thou dost keep a feast to Me in a year;
15the Feast of Unleavened things thou dost keep; seven days thou dost eat unleavened things, as I have commanded thee, at the time appointed [in] the month of Abib; for in it thou hast come forth out of Egypt, and ye do not appear [in] My presence empty;
16and the Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of thy works which thou sowest in the field; and the Feast of the In-Gathering, in the outgoing of the year, in thy gathering thy works out of the field.
17‘Three times in a year do all thy males appear before the face of the Lord Jehovah.
18‘Thou dost not sacrifice on a fermented thing the blood of My sacrifice, and the fat of My festival doth not remain till morning;
19the beginning of the first-fruits of thy ground thou dost bring into the house of Jehovah thy God; thou dost not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
20‘Lo, I am sending a messenger before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee in unto the place which I have prepared;
21be watchful because of his presence, and hearken to his voice, rebel not against him, for he beareth not with your transgression, for My name [is] in his heart;
22for, if thou diligently hearken to his voice, and hast done all that which I speak, then I have been at enmity with thine enemies, and have distressed those distressing thee.
23‘For My messenger goeth before thee, and hath brought thee in unto the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, and I have cut them off.
24‘Thou dost not bow thyself to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their doings, but dost utterly devote them, and thoroughly break their standing pillars.
25‘And ye have served Jehovah your God, and He hath blessed thy bread and thy water, and I have turned aside sickness from thine heart;
26there is not a miscarrying and barren one in thy land; the number of thy days I fulfil:
27My terror I send before thee, and I have put to death all the people among whom thou comest, and I have given the neck of all thine enemies unto thee.
28‘And I have sent the hornet before thee, and it hath cast out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee;
29I cast them not out from before thee in one year, lest the land be a desolation, and the beast of the field hath multiplied against thee;
30little [by] little I cast them out from before thee, till thou art fruitful, and hast inherited the land.
31‘And I have set thy border from the Red Sea, even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness unto the River: for I give into your hand the inhabitants of the land, and thou hast cast them out from before thee;
32thou dost not make a covenant with them, and with their gods;
33they do not dwell in thy land, lest they cause thee to sin against Me when thou servest their gods, when it becometh a snare to thee.’
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