Exodus 23
23
Equal Justice for All
The Lord said:
1 #
Ex 20.16; Lv 19.11,12; Dt 5.20. Don't spread harmful rumors or help a criminal by giving false evidence.
2Always tell the truth in court, even if everyone else is#23.2 everyone else is: Or “the authorities are.” dishonest and stands in the way of justice. 3#Lv 19.15. And don't favor the poor, simply because they are poor.
4 #
Dt 22.1-4. If you find an ox or a donkey that has wandered off, take it back where it belongs, even if the owner is your enemy.
5If a donkey is overloaded and falls down, you must do what you can to help, even if it belongs to someone who doesn't like you.#23.5 you: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 5.
6 #
Lv 19.15; Dt 16.18,19. Make sure that the poor are given equal justice in court. 7Don't bring false charges against anyone or sentence an innocent person to death. I won't forgive you if you do.
8Don't accept bribes. Judges are blinded and justice is twisted by bribes.
9 #
Ex 22.21; Lv 19.33,34; Dt 24.17,18; 27.14-26. Don't mistreat foreigners. You were foreigners in Egypt, and you know what it is like.
Laws for the Sabbath
The Lord said:
10 #
Lv 25.1-7. Plant and harvest your crops for six years, 11but let the land rest during the seventh year. The poor are to eat what they want from your fields, vineyards, and olive trees during that year, and when they have all they want from your fields, leave the rest for wild animals.
12 #
Ex 20.9-11; 31.15; 34.21; 35.2; Lv 23.3; Dt 5.13,14. Work the first six days of the week, but rest and relax on the seventh day. This law is not only for you, but for your oxen, donkeys, and slaves, as well as for any foreigners among you.
13Make certain that you obey everything I have said. Don't pray to other gods or even mention their names.
Three Annual Festivals
(Exodus 34.18-26; Deuteronomy 16.1-17)
The Lord said:
14Celebrate three festivals each year in my honor.
15 #
Ex 12.14-20; Lv 23.6-8; Nu 28.17-25. Celebrate the Festival of Thin Bread by eating bread made without yeast, just as I have commanded.#23.15 as I have commanded: See 12.14-20. Do this at the proper time during the month of Abib,#23.15 Abib: See the note at 12.2. because it is the month when you left Egypt. And make certain that everyone brings the proper offerings.
16 #
Lv 23.15-21; Nu 28.26-31;
Lv 23.39-43. Celebrate the Harvest Festival#23.16 Harvest Festival: Traditionally called the “Festival of Weeks” and known in New Testament times as “Pentecost.” each spring when you start harvesting your wheat, and celebrate the Festival of Shelters#23.16 Festival of Shelters: The Hebrew text has “Festival of Ingathering” (so also in 34.22), which was the final harvesting of crops and fruits before the autumn rains began. But the usual name was “Festival of Shelters.” each autumn when you pick your fruit.
17Your men must come to these three festivals each year to worship me.
18Do not offer bread made with yeast when you sacrifice an animal to me. And make sure that the fat of the animal is burned that same day.
19 #
Dt 26.2; Ex 34.26;
Dt 14.21. Each year bring the best part of your first harvest to the place of worship.
Don't boil a young goat in its mother's milk.
A Promise and a Warning
The Lord said:
20I am sending an angel to protect you and to lead you into the land I have ready for you. 21Carefully obey everything the angel says, because I am giving him complete authority, and he won't tolerate rebellion. 22If you faithfully obey him, I will be a fierce enemy of your enemies. 23My angel will lead you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. 24Don't worship their gods or follow their customs. Instead, destroy their idols and shatter their stone images.
25Worship only me, the Lord your God! I will bless you with plenty of food and water and keep you strong. 26Your women will give birth to healthy children, and everyone will live a long life.
27I will terrify those nations and make your enemies so confused that they will run from you. 28I will make the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites panic as you approach. 29But I won't do all this in the first year, because the land would become poor, and wild animals would be everywhere. 30Instead, I will force out your enemies little by little and give your nation time to grow strong enough to take over the land.
31I will see that your borders reach from the Red Sea#23.31 Red Sea: Hebrew yam suph, here referring to the Gulf of Aqaba, since the term is extended to include the northeastern arm of the Red Sea (see also the note at 13.18). to the Euphrates River and from the Mediterranean Sea to the desert. I will let you defeat the people who live there, and you will force them out of the land. 32But you must not make any agreements with them or with their gods. 33Don't let them stay in your land. They will trap you into sinning against me and worshiping their gods.
Currently Selected:
Exodus 23: CEV
Highlight
Copy
Compare
Share
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Exodus 23
23
1 #
Exod 20.16; Lev 19.11,12; Deut 5.20. Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. 2Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment: 3#Lev 19.15. neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause.
4 #
Deut 22.1-4. If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. 5If 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 #
Lev 19.15; Deut 16.19. Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause. 7Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked. 8And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.
9 #
Exod 22.21; Lev 19.33,34; Deut 24.17,18; 27.19. 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 #
Lev 25.1-7. And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: 11but 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 #
Exod 20.9-11; 31.15; 34.21; 35.2; Lev 23.3; Deut 5.13,14. 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. 13And 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.
The Three Appointed Feasts
(Exodus 34.18-26; Deuteronomy 16.1-17)
14Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. 15#Exod 12.14-20; Lev 23.6-8; Num 28.17-25. 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#Lev 23.15-21; Num 28.26-31; Lev 23.39-43. and the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labors, 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 labors out of the field. 17Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord God.
18Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning. 19#Deut 26.2; Deut 14.21. 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.
The Lord's Angel Sent to Lead Israel
20Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. 21Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.
22But 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.
23For mine angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Per´izzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jeb´usites; and I will cut them off. 24Thou 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. 25And 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. 26There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil. 27I 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. 28And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. 29I 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. 30By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. 31And 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. 32Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. 33They 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.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Copy
Compare
Share
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
King James Version 1611, spelling, punctuation and text formatting modernized by ABS in 1962; typesetting © 2010 American Bible Society.