Exodus 23
My Name Is in Him
← Exodus 22 · Exodus: all chapters · Exodus 24 →
Read this chapter with the Hebrew and Greek compared →
Laws of Justice, Equity, and Mercy
23:1You shall not accept an empty report. Do not agree with an unjust person to become an unjust witness.
23:2You shall not join the majority in evil, or join a multitude in turning aside with the majority so as to exclude justice.
23:3You shall not show partiality to a poor person in judgment.
23:4If you meet your enemy’s ox or beast of burden wandering, you shall turn it back and return it to him.
23:5If you see your enemy’s beast of burden fallen under its load, you shall not pass it by; you shall help lift it with him.
23:6You shall not pervert a poor person’s judgment in his dispute.
23:7Keep away from every unjust charge. Do not kill the innocent or righteous, and do not acquit the ungodly for the sake of bribes.
23:8You shall not accept gifts, for gifts blind the eyes of those who see and corrupt righteous words.
23:9You shall not afflict a resident alien, for you know the soul of the resident alien; you yourselves were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.
Sacred Times: The Sabbath and Annual Feasts
23:10For six years you shall sow your land and gather its produce,
23:11but in the seventh you shall grant it release and leave it, and the poor of your nation shall eat; the wild animals shall eat what remains. You shall do the same with your vineyard and olive grove.
23:12For six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day there shall be rest, so that your ox and beast of burden may rest, and the son of your female slave and the resident alien may be refreshed.
23:13Keep everything I have said to you. Do not call to mind the name of other gods or let it be heard from your mouth.
23:14Three times a year you shall keep a feast to Me.
23:15You shall observe 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 new grain, for in it you came out of Egypt. You shall not appear before Me empty-handed.
23:16You shall keep the Feast of Harvest of the first produce of your labor that you sow in your field, and the Feast of Completion at the year’s end, when you gather the fruit of your labor from your field.
23:17Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God.
23:18For when I drive nations out before you and enlarge your borders, you shall not offer the blood of My offering with leaven, and the fat of My feast shall not remain until morning.
23:19You shall bring the firstfruits of the first produce of your land into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a lamb in its mother’s milk.
Obedience to the Lord
23:20Look, I am sending My angel before you to guard you on the way and bring you into the land I have prepared for you.
23:21Watch yourself and listen to him. Do not disobey him, for he will not yield before you, since My name is upon him.
23:22If you truly listen to My voice, do everything I command you, and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured people above all the nations, for all the earth is Mine. You shall be a royal priesthood and a holy nation to Me. These are the words you shall speak to the sons of Israel. If you truly listen to My voice and do everything I tell you, I will be an enemy to your enemies and oppose those who oppose you.
23:23For My angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will destroy them.
23:24You shall not bow down to their gods or serve them. You shall not follow their practices, but utterly overthrow them and completely break their pillars.
23:25You shall serve the Lord your God, and I will bless your bread, wine, and water. I will turn sickness away from you.
23:26No one shall be unfruitful or barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days.
23:27I will send terror before you, throw into confusion all the nations you enter, and make all your adversaries fugitives.
23:28I will send hornets ahead of you, and they will drive out the Amorites, Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites from before you.
23:29I will not drive them out in one year, lest the land become desolate and the animals of the land multiply against you.
23:30Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you increase and inherit the land.
23:31I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the great River Euphrates. I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hands, and I will drive them out before you.
23:32You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods.
23:33They shall not dwell in your land, lest they cause you to sin against Me. If you serve their gods, these will become a stumbling block to you.
← Exodus 22 · Exodus: all chapters · Exodus 24 →
Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.