Exo 23 | ESV | STEP | You shall not spread a false report . You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness .

1 ^a“You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a ^bmalicious witness. 2 You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, 3 ^cnor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.

4 ^d“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. 5 If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him.

6 ^e“You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit. 7 ^fKeep far from a false charge, and ^gdo not kill the innocent and righteous, for ^hI will not acquit the wicked. 8 ⁱAnd you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.

9 ^j“You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Laws About the Sabbath and Festivals

10 ^k“For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, 11 but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.

12 ^l“Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed.

13 ^m“Pay attention to all that I have said to you, and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let it be heard on your lips.

14 ⁿ“Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. 15 ^oYou shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of ^pAbib, for in it you came out of Egypt. ^qNone shall appear before me empty-handed. 16 You shall keep ^rthe Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the ^sFeast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. 17 ^tThree times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God.

18 ^u“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the fat of my feast remain until the morning.

19 “The best of the ^vfirstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.

^w“You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Conquest of Canaan Promised

20 ^x“Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. 21 Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; ^ydo not rebel against him, ^zfor he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.

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

23 ^ab“When my angel goes before you and brings you ^acto the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, 24 you shall ^adnot bow down to their gods nor serve them, ^aenor do as they do, but ^afyou shall utterly overthrow them and break their ^agpillars in pieces. 25 You ^ahshall serve the Lord your God, and ^aihe ^{▼▼Septuagint, Vulgate I} will bless your bread and your water, and ^akI will take sickness away from among you. 26 ^alNone shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the ^amnumber of your days. 27 I will send ^anmy terror before you and will throw into ^aoconfusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28 And ^apI will send hornets ^{▼▼Or the hornet} before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. 29 ^arI will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. 31 ^asAnd I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, ^{▼▼Hebrew the River} for ^auI will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. 32 ^avYou shall make no covenant with them and their gods. 33 They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, ^awit will surely be a snare to you.”