Justice and Fairness
1 “Do not spread false rumors, and do not help a guilty person by giving false testimony. 2 Do not follow the majority when they do wrong or when they give testimony that perverts justice. 3 Do not show partiality to a poor person at his trial.
4 “If you happen to see your enemy's cow or donkey running loose, take it back to him. 5 If his donkey has fallen under its load, help him get the donkey to its feet again; don't just walk off.
6 “Do not deny justice to a poor person when he appears in court. 7 Do not make false accusations, and do not put an innocent person to death, for I will condemn anyone who does such an evil thing. 8 Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe makes people blind to what is right and ruins the cause of those who are innocent.
9 “Do not mistreat a foreigner; you know how it feels to be a foreigner, because you were foreigners in Egypt.
The Seventh Year and the Seventh Day
10 “For six years plant your land and gather in what it produces. 11 But in the seventh year let it rest, and do not harvest anything that grows on it. The poor may eat what grows there, and the wild animals can have what is left. Do the same with your vineyards and your olive trees.
12 “Work six days a week, but do no work on the seventh day, so that your slaves and the foreigners who work for you and even your animals can rest.
13 “Listen to everything that I, the Lord, have said to you. Do not pray to other gods; do not even mention their names.
The Three Great Festivals
(Exodus 34.18-26Deuteronomy 16.1-17)14 “Celebrate three festivals a year to honor me. 15 In the month of Abib, the month in which you left Egypt, celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread in the way that I commanded you. Do not eat any bread made with yeast during the seven days of this festival. Never come to worship me without bringing an offering.
16 “Celebrate the Harvest Festival when you begin to harvest your crops.
“Celebrate the Festival of Shelters in the autumn, when you gather the fruit from your vineyards and orchards. 17 Every year at these three festivals all your men must come to worship me, the Lord your God.
18 “Do not offer bread made with yeast when you sacrifice an animal to me. The fat of animals sacrificed to me during these festivals is not to be left until the following morning.
19 “Each year bring to the house of the Lord your God the first grain that you harvest.
“Do not cook a young sheep or goat in its mother's milk.
Promises and Instructions
20 “I will send an angel ahead of you to protect you as you travel and to bring you to the place which I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him and obey him. Do not rebel against him, for I have sent him, and he will not pardon such rebellion. 22 But if you obey him and do everything I command, I will fight against all your enemies. 23 My angel will go ahead of you and take you into the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will destroy them. 24 Do not bow down to their gods or worship them, and do not adopt their religious practices. Destroy their gods and break down their sacred stone pillars. 25 If you worship me, the Lord your God, I will bless you with food and water and take away all your sicknesses. 26 In your land no woman will have a miscarriage or be without children. I will give you long lives.
27 “I will make the people who oppose you afraid of me; I will bring confusion among the people against whom you fight, and I will make all your enemies turn and run from you. 28 I will throw your enemies into panic; I will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites as you advance. 29 I will not drive them out within a year's time; if I did, the land would become deserted, and the wild animals would be too many for you. 30 Instead, I will drive them out little by little, until there are enough of you to take possession of the land. 31 I will make the borders of your land extend from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Mediterranean Sea and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give you power over the inhabitants of the land, and you will drive them out as you advance. 32 Do not make any agreement with them or with their gods. 33 Do not let those people live in your country; if you do, they will make you sin against me. If you worship their gods, it will be a fatal trap for you.”
1 Thou shalt not receiue a false tale, neyther shalt thou put thine hande with the wicked, to be a false witnes. 2 Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do euil, neither agree in a controuersie to decline after many and ouerthrowe the trueth. 3 Thou shalt not esteeme a poore man in his cause. 4 If thou meete thine enemies oxe, or his asse going astray, thou shalt bring him to him againe. 5 If thou see thine enemies asse lying vnder his burden, wilt thou cease to helpe him? thou shalt helpe him vp againe with it. 6 Thou shalt not ouerthrowe the right of thy poore in his sute. 7 Thou shalt keepe thee farre from a false matter, and shalt not slaye the innocent and the righteous: for I will not iustifie a wicked man. 8 Thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and peruerteth the wordes of the righteous. 9 Thou shalt not oppresse a stranger: for ye knowe the heart of a stranger, seeing yee were strangers in the land of Egypt. 10 Moreouer, sixe yeres thou shalt sowe thy land, and gather the fruites thereof, 11 But the seuenth yeere thou shalt let it rest and lie still, that the poore of thy people may eat, and what they leaue, the beastes of the fielde shall eate. In like maner thou shalt doe with thy vineyard, and with thine oliue trees. 12 Sixe dayes thou shalt do thy worke, and in the seuenth day thou shalt rest, that thine oxe, and thine asse may rest, and the sonne of thy maide and the stranger may be refreshed. 13 And ye shall take heede to all things that I haue sayde vnto you: and ye shall make no mention of the name of other gods, neither shall it be heard out of thy mouth. 14 Three times thou shalt keepe a feast vnto me in the yeere. 15 Thou shalt keepe the feast of vnleauened bread: thou shalt eate vnleauened bread seue dayes, as I commanded thee, in the season of the moneth of Abib: for in it thou camest out of Egypt: and none shall appeare before me emptie: 16 The feast also of the haruest of the first fruites of thy labours, which thou hast sowen in the fielde: and the feast of gathering fruites in the ende of the yere, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the fielde. 17 These three times in the yeere shall all thy men children appeare before the Lord Iehouah. 18 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leauened bread: neyther shall the fatte of my sacrifice remayne vntill the morning. 19 The first of the first fruites of thy lande thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God: yet shalt thou not seeth a kid in his mothers milke. 20 Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keepe thee in the way, and to bring thee to the place which I haue prepared. 21 Beware of him, and heare his voyce, and prouoke him not: for he will not spare your misdeedes, because my name is in him. 22 But if thou hearken vnto his voyce, and do all that I speake, the I wil be an enemie vnto thine enemies, and will afflict them that afflict thee. 23 For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee vnto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hiuites, and the Iebusites, and I will destroy them. 24 Thou shalt not bow downe to their gods, neither serue them, nor doe after the workes of them: but vtterly ouerthrowe them, and breake in pieces their images. 25 For ye shall serue the Lord your God, and he shall blesse thy bread and thy water, and I will take all sickenes away from the middes of thee. 26 There shall none cast their fruite nor be baren in thy lande: the number of thy dayes will I fulfill. 27 I will send my feare before thee, and will destroy all the people among whome thou shalt go: and I will make all thine enemies turne their backes vnto thee: 28 And I will sende hornets before thee, which shall driue out the Hiuites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from thy face. 29 I will not cast them out from thy face in one yeere, least the land grow to a wildernes: and the beasts of the field multiplie against thee. 30 By litle and litle I will driue them out from thy face, vntill thou increase, and inherite the lande. 31 And I will make thy coastes from the red sea vnto the sea of the Philistims, and from the desert vnto the Riuer: for I will deliuer the inhabitants of the lande into your hande, and thou shalt driue them out from thy face. 32 Thou shalt make no couenant with them, nor with their gods: 33 Neither shall they dwell in thy lande, least they make thee sinne against me: for if thou serue their gods, surely it shall be thy destruction.