Exodus 23

⁵Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; the one with haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not endure.

⁵A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who utters lies will not escape.

¹⁶If a false witness testifies against someone, accusing him of a crime,

¹⁷both parties to the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord, before the priests and judges who are in office at that time.

⁵⁹Now the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were seeking false testimony against Jesus in order to put Him to death.

⁶⁰But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two came forward

¹⁶You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

²⁰You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

¹⁰My son, if sinners entice you, do not yield to them.

¹¹If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,

¹⁵my son, do not walk the road with them or set foot upon their path.

²³But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices for Jesus to be crucified. And their clamor prevailed.

²⁴So Pilate sentenced that their demand be met.

³⁴because I greatly feared the crowds and the contempt of the clans terrified me, so that I kept silent and would not go outside—

²⁴When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but that instead a riot was breaking out, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “You bear the responsibility.”

²⁵All the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

¹⁷Show no partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. And bring to me any case too difficult for you, and I will hear it.”

¹⁵You must not pervert justice; you must not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the rich; you are to judge your neighbor fairly.

¹⁷But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peace-loving, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere.

²“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah

³Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed.

¹⁷Show no partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. And bring to me any case too difficult for you, and I will hear it.”

¹If you see your brother’s ox or sheep straying, you must not ignore it; be sure to return it to your brother.

²If your brother does not live near you, or if you do not know who he is, you are to take the animal home to remain with you until your brother comes seeking it; then you can return it to him.

¹⁵Make sure that no one repays evil for evil. Always pursue what is good for one another and for all people.

¹⁷Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Carefully consider what is right in the eyes of everybody.

¹⁸If it is possible on your part, live at peace with everyone.

⁴⁴But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

²⁷But to those of you who will listen, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

²¹If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.

⁴If you see your brother’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, you must not ignore it; you must help him lift it up.

²⁸They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.

⁵“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the Lord of Hosts.

⁸If you see the oppression of the poor and the denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be astonished at the matter; for one official is watched by a superior, and others higher still are over them.

¹Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees,

²to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.

²You shall not follow the crowd in wrongdoing. When you testify in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd.

³And do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit.

⁵Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?

⁶But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?

²⁵Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.

¹“You shall not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked by being a malicious witness.

²⁵‘Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

²²Abstain from every form of evil.

¹⁸The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

⁷maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

¹⁹Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

²³who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of justice.

²³A wicked man takes a covert bribe to subvert the course of justice.

²⁷He who is greedy for unjust gain brings trouble on his household, but he who hates bribes will live.

³But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside toward dishonest gain, accepting bribes and perverting justice.

¹⁰in whose hands are wicked schemes, whose right hands are full of bribes.

¹⁹‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

²¹You must not exploit or oppress a foreign resident, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

¹⁴Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.

¹⁵You are to pay his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise he may cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

³³Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?’

²¹However, if the servant gets up after a day or two, the owner shall not be punished, since the servant is his property.

⁷Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.

³For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyard and gather its crops.

⁴But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land—a Sabbath to the Lord. You are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard.

²“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the Lord.

³For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyard and gather its crops.

³⁴Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

³⁵As long as it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not receive during the Sabbaths when you lived in it.

¹¹The fiftieth year will be a Jubilee for you; you are not to sow the land or reap its aftergrowth or harvest the untended vines.

¹²For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You may eat only the crops taken directly from the field.

²⁰Now you may wonder, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or gather our produce?’

²²While you are sowing in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest, until the ninth year’s harvest comes in.

¹⁴But the synagogue leader was indignant that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. “There are six days for work,” he told the crowd. “So come and be healed on those days and not on the Sabbath.”

³Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”

¹⁵For six days work may be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must surely be put to death.

¹⁶The Israelites must keep the Sabbath, celebrating it as a permanent covenant for the generations to come.

⁸Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

⁹Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

²¹Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in the seasons of plowing and harvesting, you must rest.

¹³Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

¹⁴but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God, on which you must not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox or donkey or any of your livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest as you do.

⁷So you are not to associate with these nations that remain among you. You must not call on the names of their gods or swear by them, and you must not serve them or bow down to them.

²And on that day, declares the Lord of Hosts, I will erase the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered. I will also remove the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land.

⁹Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and grandchildren.

¹⁶Pay close attention to your life and to your teaching. Persevere in these things, for by so doing you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

¹⁷For I will remove from her lips the names of the Baals; no longer will their names be invoked.

³Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the idols of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place.

¹⁶Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Lord your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed.

³⁴“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Feast of Tabernacles to the Lord begins, and it continues for seven days.

¹⁷Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God.

¹⁶You shall count off fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord.

²²And you are to celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.

²³Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.

⁵The Passover to the Lord begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month.

⁷Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed.

⁹Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your crops;

¹⁰then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

²⁰You must redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb; but if you do not redeem it, you are to break its neck. You must redeem all the firstborn of your sons. No one shall appear before Me empty-handed.

¹⁶The fourteenth day of the first month is the Lord’s Passover.

¹⁷On the fifteenth day of this month, there shall be a feast; for seven days unleavened bread is to be eaten.

¹⁶Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Lord your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed.

²¹The king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover of the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.”

²²No such Passover had been observed from the days of the judges who had governed Israel through all the days of the kings of Israel and Judah.

²²And you are to celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.

⁹And the Lord said to Moses,

¹⁰“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you are to bring to the priest a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest.

³⁴“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Feast of Tabernacles to the Lord begins, and it continues for seven days.

³⁵On the first day there shall be a sacred assembly. You must not do any regular work.

²⁹You must not hold back offerings from your granaries or vats. You are to give Me the firstborn of your sons.

¹²On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, you are to hold a sacred assembly; you must not do any regular work, and you shall observe a feast to the Lord for seven days.

¹³As a pleasing aroma to the Lord, you are to present a food offering, a burnt offering of thirteen young bulls, two rams, and fourteen male lambs a year old, all unblemished,

¹⁴And they found written in the Law, which the Lord had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month,

¹⁵and that they should proclaim this message and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the hill country and bring back branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.”

¹⁶Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Lord your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed.

²³Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.

¹¹when all Israel comes before the Lord your God at the place He will choose, you are to read this law in the hearing of all Israel.

⁷They go from strength to strength, until each appears before God in Zion.

¹⁴Three times a year you are to celebrate a feast to Me.

⁵Instead, you must seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go.

²⁵Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to Me along with anything leavened, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast remain until morning.

⁴No leaven is to be found in all your land for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice in the evening of the first day shall remain until morning.

¹⁰Do not leave any of it until morning; before the morning you must burn up any part that is left over.

¹¹No grain offering that you present to the Lord may be made with leaven, for you are not to burn any leaven or honey as a food offering to the Lord.

¹⁵The meat of the sacrifice of his peace offering of thanksgiving must be eaten on the day he offers it; none of it may be left until morning.

⁸They are to eat the meat that night, roasted over the fire, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

²⁶Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

²¹You are not to eat any carcass; you may give it to the foreigner residing within your gates, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

³⁵We will also bring the firstfruits of our land and of every fruit tree to the house of the Lord year by year.

¹⁰And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land that You, O Lord, have given me.” Then you are to place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before Him.

²⁹You must not hold back offerings from your granaries or vats. You are to give Me the firstborn of your sons.

¹²I give you all the freshest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain that the Israelites give to the Lord as their firstfruits.

¹³The firstfruits of everything in their land that they bring to the Lord will belong to you. Every ceremonially clean person in your household may eat them.

¹⁴And the Lord answered, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

¹¹For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

³⁴Now go, lead the people to the place I described. Behold, My angel shall go before you. But on the day I settle accounts, I will punish them for their sin.”

¹⁹And the angel of God, who had gone before the camp of Israel, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from before them and stood behind them,

²And I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

⁹In all their distress, He too was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. In His love and compassion He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

⁵⁶But they tested and disobeyed God Most High, for they did not keep His decrees.

²⁵See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if the people did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns us from heaven?

⁴⁰How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!

³⁸But if I am doing them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works themselves, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father.”

³⁰I and the Father are one.”

¹⁹But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your rebellion or your sins.

³I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

⁷Then the Lord your God will put all these curses upon your enemies who hate you and persecute you.

⁸For this is what the Lord of Hosts says: “After His Glory has sent Me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye—

²⁰Their children will be as in days of old, and their congregation will be established before Me; and I will punish all their oppressors.

⁴He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?”

⁵“Who are You, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” He replied.

⁹He crouches, he lies down like a lion, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him? Blessed are those who bless you and cursed are those who curse you.”

²⁰Behold, I am sending an angel before you to protect you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.

¹³Therefore My people will go into exile for their lack of understanding; their dignitaries are starving and their masses are parched with thirst.

²When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the region, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.

¹⁹the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,

²⁰Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,

²So Aaron told them, “Take off the gold earrings that are on your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”

¹⁷And I have promised to bring you up out of your affliction in Egypt, into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’

⁵You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

³⁰be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”

³¹You must not worship the Lord your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

⁵²you must drive out before you all the inhabitants of the land, destroy all their carved images and cast idols, and demolish all their high places.

⁵Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire.

³Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the idols of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place.

⁹So Manasseh led the people of Judah and Jerusalem astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.

¹⁵And the Lord will remove from you all sickness. He will not lay upon you any of the terrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but He will inflict them on all who hate you.

²⁶saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”

⁵But be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

³He who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases,

²⁴And no resident of Zion will say, “I am sick.” The people who dwell there will be forgiven of iniquity.

¹³He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your land—your grain, new wine, and oil, the young of your herds and the lambs of your flocks—in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you.

¹⁴You will be blessed above all peoples; among you there will be no barren man or woman or livestock.

⁴The fruit of your womb will be blessed, as well as the produce of your land and the offspring of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

²⁶You will come to the grave in full vigor, like a sheaf of grain gathered in season.

¹⁰Their bulls breed without fail; their cows bear calves and do not miscarry.

²⁰No longer will a nursing infant live but a few days, or an old man fail to live out his years. For the youth will die at a hundred years, and he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.

³⁸He blesses them, and they multiply greatly; He does not let their herds diminish.

²⁵This very day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon all the nations under heaven. They will hear the reports of you and tremble in anguish because of you.”

⁵As they set out, a terror from God fell over the surrounding cities, so that they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.

²⁵No man will be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the fear and dread of you upon all the land, wherever you set foot, as He has promised you.

²³But the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed.

⁴⁰You have made my enemies retreat before me; I destroyed those who hated me.

¹⁴The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will grip the dwellers of Philistia.

¹⁵Then the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed; trembling will seize the leaders of Moab; those who dwell in Canaan will melt away,

²⁰Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet against them until even the survivors hiding from you have perished.

¹¹After this, you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The people of Jericho fought against you, as did the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I delivered them into your hand.

¹²I sent the hornet ahead of you, and it drove out the two Amorite kings before you, but not by your own sword or bow.

²²The Lord your God will drive out these nations before you little by little. You will not be enabled to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals would multiply around you.

¹These are the nations that the Lord left to test all the Israelites who had not known any of the wars in Canaan,

²if only to teach warfare to the subsequent generations of Israel, especially to those who had not known it formerly:

¹²But the descendants of Manasseh were unable to occupy these cities, because the Canaanites were determined to stay in this land.

¹³However, when the Israelites grew stronger, they put the Canaanites to forced labor; but they failed to drive them out completely.

⁶³But the descendants of Judah could not drive out the Jebusites living in Jerusalem. So to this day the Jebusites live there among the descendants of Judah.

¹⁰But they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer. So the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day, but they are forced laborers.

¹⁸On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—

²⁴Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea.

⁴⁴And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as He had sworn to their fathers. None of their enemies could stand against them, for the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand.

³Your southern border will extend from the Wilderness of Zin along the border of Edom. On the east, your southern border will run from the end of the Salt Sea,

⁴cross south of the Ascent of Akrabbim, continue to Zin, and go south of Kadesh-barnea. Then it will go on to Hazar-addar and proceed to Azmon,

⁴Your territory shall extend from the wilderness and Lebanon to the great River Euphrates—all the land of the Hittites—and west as far as the Great Sea.

²⁴For Solomon had dominion over everything west of the Euphrates—over all the kingdoms from Tiphsah to Gaza—and he had peace on all sides.

¹²Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land you are entering, lest they become a snare in your midst.

²and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.

¹⁵Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices.

¹⁵What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

³⁵but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs.

¹⁶You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

³⁶They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.

¹⁶You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

¹³know for sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become for you a snare and a trap, a scourge in your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the Lord your God has given you.

¹²Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land you are entering, lest they become a snare in your midst.

³So now I tell you that I will not drive out these people before you; they will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.”

³⁰be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”