Chapter 23 Judgments

[1] Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.

[2] Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment:

[3] Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause.

[4] If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.

[5] If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.

[6] Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause.

[7] Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.

[8] And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.

[9] Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

[10] And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:

[11] But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard.

[12] Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.

[13] And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.

[14] Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.

[15] Thou shalt keep the feast (of unleavened) bread: thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:

[16] And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering (which is in the end of the year) when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.

[17] Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord (GOD).

[18] Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.

[19] The first (of the firstfruits of thy land) thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

[20] Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.

[21] Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions1: for my name is in him.

[22] But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.

[23] For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.

[24] Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.

[25] And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.

[26] There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.

[27] I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.

[28] And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.2

[29] I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.

[30] By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

[31] And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.

[32] Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.

[33] They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.

Chapter 24

1  Note: this angel will forgive not transgressions.

2 Read: Book of Joshua chapters 6