Exodus 23

₁The Lord said to Moses: ‘You may not tell bad stories about other people or lie to help someone who is guilty.

₂You must always tell the truth in court. If you must say what happened and other people tell lies, then you may not do the same and tell lies with them. ₃You may not say things to help a poor man in court just because he is poor.’

₄‘If an ox or a donkey of your enemy has run away or got lost, and you find it, then you must take it back to him. ₅If your enemy's donkey falls down because there are too many things on his back and you see it, then you may not walk away from the donkey. You must help him.’

₆‘You must judge a poor man fairly in court. ₇Do not listen to lies, do not let them punish an innocent and righteous man, and do not say a bad man is innocent. ₈Do not accept bribe money because that will make the judge blind and make him decide wrongly and that will not be right to the people who are innocent.

₉Don't do bad things to a stranger. You know how it feels to be a stranger because you were strangers in Egypt.’

₁₀‘You must sow and harvest wheat or barley on your fields for 6 years. ₁₁In the 7th year you must let the ground rest, and you must not sow or harvest, so that poor people can get something to eat. If the poor people leave something, then the animals can eat it. You must do the same with your vineyards and your olive trees.

₁₂You must do your work for 6 days, but on the 7th day you may not work. Then your cattle and donkeys must rest, and also your slaves and the strangers.’

₁₃‘You must listen to Me and do everything I have told you. You must do everything as I have said. You may not pray to other gods. You may never speak about other gods.’

₁₄‘You must celebrate 3 feasts for Me every year.

₁₅The first feast is the Feast of the flat bread. You must eat only flat bread for 7 days as I have told you. You must always celebrate this feast on the right day in the month of Abib because this is the month when you came out of Egypt. All of you must sacrifice offerings to Me.

₁₆You must also celebrate the Feast of weeks when you start cutting the ripe wheat.

The 3rd feast is the feast at the end of the year after harvest time when you have finished all your work. ₁₇All the men must come to these 3 feasts to worship Me.’

₁₈‘Do not sacrifice the blood of an animal with an offering that has yeast in it.

You may not leave the fat of an animal that you have sacrificed till the next morning.

₁₉When you start to cut off wheat and pick fruit, you must bring the best wheat and fruit to the temple of the Lord your God.

You may not cook a goat lamb in its mother's milk.’

₂₀‘I am sending an angel to go before you to take care of you on your way and to bring you to the land that I have prepared. ₂₁You must listen carefully to what the angel says. Do not be stubborn because he will not forgive you if you do wrong. The angel will go to do what I tell him to do. ₂₂If you listen to him carefully and you do everything I say, then I will fight against your enemies. I will fight anyone who is against you. ₂₃My angel will lead you and he will bring you to the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites and Hivites, and I will kill them.

₂₄You may not bow down before their gods, and you may not worship their idols. You may not do the same as those people do or live like they do. You must break down their sacred_pillars and destroy them. ₂₅I am the Lord your God and if you serve Me, I will bless you and you will have lots of water and food, and you will not become sick. ₂₆No woman in the land will lose her child while she is pregnant and everyone will have children. The people will become very old.

₂₇All the people and nations where you go will be afraid of Me. I will chase them away and all your enemies will run away from you. ₂₈I will make the Hivites, the Canaanites and Hittites afraid of you. They will be afraid of you as they are afraid of dangerous bees. I will chase away those nations before you. ₂₉I will not chase them all away in one year, because then there will be no one in the land and then the wild animals will become more than you. ₃₀I will chase them away slowly, one group at a time, and then there will be more and more of you and you will take the land.

₃₁I will give you all the land from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will help you defeat all the people who are living in the land. I will chase them out of the land.

₃₂You may not make an agreement with them or with their gods. ₃₃They may not live with you in your land, because they will teach you to sin_against Me and to serve their gods. They will teach you to do things that are wrong.’