[1] Do not let a false statement go further; do not make an agreement with
evil-doers to be a false witness. [2] Do not be moved to do wrong by the
general opinion, or give the support of your words to a wrong decision: [3]
But, on the other hand, do not be turned from what is right in order to
give support to a poor man's cause. [4] If you come across the ox or the
ass of one who is no friend to you wandering from its way, you are to take
it back to him. [5] If you see the ass of one who has no love for you bent
down to the earth under the weight which is put on it, you are to come to
its help, even against your desire. [6] Let no wrong decisions be given in
the poor man's cause. [7] Keep yourselves far from any false business;
never let the upright or him who has done no wrong be put to death: for I
will make the evil-doer responsible for his sin. [8] Take no rewards in a
cause: for rewards make blind those who have eyes to see, and make the
decisions of the upright false. [9] Do not be hard on the man from a
strange country who is living among you; for you have had experience of the
feelings of one who is far from the land of his birth, because you
yourselves were living in Egypt, in a strange land. [10] For six years put
seed into your fields and get in the increase; [11] But in the seventh year
let the land have a rest and be unplanted; so that the poor may have food
from it: and let the beasts of the field take the rest. Do the same with
your vine-gardens and your olive-trees. [12] For six days do your work, and
on the seventh day keep the Sabbath; so that your ox and your ass may have
rest, together with the son of your servant and the man from a strange land
living among you. [13] Take note of all these things which I have said to
you, and let not the names of other gods come into your minds or from your
lips. [14] Three times in the year you are to keep a feast to me. [15] You
are to keep the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days let your bread be
without leaven, as I gave you orders, at the regular time in the month Abib
(for in it you came out of Egypt); and let no one come before me without an
offering: [16] And the feast of the grain-cutting, the first-fruits of your
planted fields: and the feast at the start of the year, when you have got
in all the fruit from your fields. [17] Three times in the year let all
your males come before the Lord God. [18] Do not give the blood of my
offering with leavened bread; and do not let the fat of my feast be kept
all night till the morning. [19] The best of the first-fruits of your land
are to be taken into the house of the Lord your God. The young goat is not
to be cooked in its mother's milk. [20] See, I am sending an angel before
you, to keep you on your way and to be your guide into the place which I
have made ready for you. [21] Give attention to him and give ear to his
voice; do not go against him; for your wrongdoing will not be overlooked by
him, because my name is in him. [22] But if you truly give ear to his
voice, and do whatever I say, then I will be against those who are against
you, fighting those who are fighting you. [23] And my angel will go before
you, guiding you into the land of the Amorite and the Hittite and the
Perizzite and the Canaanite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, and they will
be cut off by my hand. [24] Do not go down on your faces and give worship
to their gods, or do as they do; but overcome them completely, and let
their pillars be broken down. [25] And give worship to the Lord your God,
who will send his blessing on your bread and on your water; and I will take
all disease away from among you. [26] All your animals will give birth
without loss, not one will be without young in all your land; I will give
you a full measure of life. [27] I will send my fear before you, putting to
flight all the people to whom you come; all those who are against you will
go in flight, turning their backs before you. [28] I will send hornets
before you, driving out the Hivite and the Canaanite and the Hittite before
your face. [29] I will not send them all out in one year, for fear that
their land may become waste, and the beasts of the field be increased
overmuch against you. [30] Little by little I will send them away before
you, till your numbers are increased and you take up your heritage in the
land. [31] I will let the limits of your land be from the Red Sea to the
sea of the Philistines, and from the waste land to the river Euphrates: for
I will give the people of those lands into your power; and you will send
them out before you. [32] Make no agreement with them or with their gods.
[33] Let them not go on living in your land, or they will make you do evil
against me: for if you give worship to their gods, it will certainly be a
cause of sin to you.
