Exodus

Judicial Legislation

Do not make false statements. And do not join hands with the wicked by being a malicious witness.

Do not follow the majority when they do evil or pervert justice in a lawsuit.

Do not be partial, not even to the poor.

If you see your enemy’s ox or donkey going astray, return it to him.

When you see the donkey of a man who hates you falling under its load, do not pass by but help him.

Do not deny justice to any of your poor in a lawsuit.

Keep away from lies.

Do not slay the innocent or the just, for I will not forgive the wicked.

And do not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the clear-sighted and perverts the sentence of the just.

Do not oppress a stranger; you know what it is to be a stranger, for that is what you were in the land of Egypt.

Sabbath and Sabbatical Year of the Land

For six years, you will sow your fields and reap their produce,

but in the seventh, you will let the land rest and lie fallow. The poor may eat what it produces, and what is left will be eaten by wild animals. It will be the same for your vineyard and your olive grove.

You shall work for six days, but on the seventh, you shall rest so that your ox and your donkey may also rest and the son of your slave girl and the stranger may have breathing space.

Pay attention to all that I tell you and do not call upon other gods; don’t let their names be heard on your lips.

Cultic Prescriptions

You shall celebrate a feast in my honor three times each year.

You shall keep the feast of Unleavened Bread, as I commanded you, and eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for it was then that you left Egypt. And do not come to me empty-handed.

You shall keep the Feast of the Harvest, the feast of the first harvest of what you sowed in your fields, and the feast of Ingathering, which is the feast at the end of the year when you gather the fruit of your labor in the fields.

Three times a year, all your men shall present themselves before the Lord.

Do not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread or let the fat of my feast remain until morning.

You will bring to the house of the Lord, your God, the first of the first fruits of your soil. Do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

Epilogue

See, I am sending an angel before you to keep you safe on the way and bring you to the place I have made ready.

Be on your guard in his presence and listen to him; do not resist him, for he will not pardon your wrongdoing, for my name is in him.

If you listen to him and do what I say, I will be the enemy of your enemies and the opponent of your opponents.

My angel will go before you and bring you to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; all these I will destroy.

You shall not bow down before their gods or serve them, or act according to their ways; instead, you will destroy them utterly and smash their sacred stones.

If you serve the Lord, your God, he will bless your bread and water, and I will keep sickness away from you.

No woman among you will miscarry or be barren. I will fulfill the number of your days.

Now I will send my terror ahead of you and confuse all the people you encounter; I will make all your enemies turn and flee before you.

I will send hornets ahead of you to drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites.

I will not drive them out in a year lest the land become a desert and the wild beasts increase and molest you.

I will drive them out before you, little by little, until your number increases and you can take possession of the land.

I will fix your boundaries from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines and from the Wilderness to the Euphrates; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your power and drive them out before you.

You shall make no treaty with them or with their gods.

They shall not live in your country lest they lead you to sin against me and to serve their gods. That would surely be a snare for you.”They shall not live in your country lest they lead you to sin against me and to serve their gods. That would surely be a snare for you.”