Exodus 23-24

New American Standard Bible

Various Laws

23 “^(A)You shall not give a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked person to be a ^(B)malicious witness. ²You shall not follow ^[a]the crowd in doing evil, nor shall you ^[b]testify in a dispute so as to join together with ^[c]a crowd in order to ^(C)pervert justice; ³^(D)nor shall you ^[d]show favor to a poor person in his dispute.

⁴“^(E)If you encounter your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you must return it to him. ⁵^(F)If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall not leave it helpless for ^[e]its owner; you must arrange the load with him.

⁶“^(G)You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute. ⁷^(H)Keep far from a false charge, and ^(I)do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for ^(J)I will not acquit the guilty.

⁸“^(K)You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and ^[f]subverts the cause of the just.

⁹“^(L)You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the ^[g]feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.

The Sabbath and the Land

¹⁰“Now ^(M)you shall sow your land for six years and gather in its yield, ¹¹but in the seventh year you shall let it ^[h]rest and lie uncultivated, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the animal of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

¹²“^(N)For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as the stranger residing with you, may refresh themselves. ¹³Now ^(O)concerning everything which I have said to you, be careful; and ^(P)do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard ^[i]from your mouth.

Three National Feasts

¹⁴“^(Q)Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me. ¹⁵You shall keep ^(R)the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the ^(S)month of Abib, for in ^[j]that month you came out of Egypt. And ^[k]^(T)no one is to appear before Me empty-handed. ¹⁶Also you shall keep ^(U)the Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year ^(V)when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field. ¹⁷^(W)Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord ^[l]God.

¹⁸“^(X)You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; ^(Y)nor is the fat of My ^[m]feast to remain overnight until morning.

¹⁹“You shall bring ^(Z)the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God.

“^(AA)You are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.

Conquest of the Land

²⁰“Behold, I am going to send ^(AB)an angel before you to guard you along the way and ^(AC)to bring you into the place which I have prepared. ²¹Be attentive to him and obey his voice; ^(AD)do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your rebellion, since ^(AE)My name is in him. ²²But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then ^(AF)I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. ²³^(AG)For My angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I will completely destroy them. ²⁴^(AH)You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; ^(AI)but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their ^(AJ)memorial stones in pieces. ²⁵^(AK)And you shall serve the Lord your God, ^[n]and He will bless your bread and your water; and ^(AL)I will remove sickness from your midst. ²⁶There will be no one miscarrying or ^(AM)unable to have children in your land; ^(AN)I will fulfill the number of your days. ²⁷I will ^(AO)send My terror ahead of you, and ^(AP)throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will ^(AQ)make all your enemies turn their backs to you. ²⁸And I will send ^(AR)hornets ahead of you so that they will ^(AS)drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from you. ²⁹^(AT)I will not drive them out from you in a single year, so that the land will not become desolate and the animals of the field become too numerous for you. ³⁰I will drive them out from you ^(AU)little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land. ³¹^(AV)I will set your boundary from the ^[o]Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates River; ^(AW)for I will hand over the inhabitants of the land to you, and you will ^(AX)drive them out from you. ³²^(AY)You shall ^[p]make no covenant with them ^(AZ)or with their gods. ³³^(BA)They shall not live in your land, otherwise they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, ^(BB)it is certain to be a snare to you.”

People Affirm Their Covenant with God

24 Then He said to Moses, “^(BC)Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, ^(BD)Nadab and Abihu, and ^(BE)seventy of the elders of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance. ²Moses alone, however, shall approach the Lord, but they shall not approach, nor shall the people come up with him.”

³Then Moses came and reported to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ^[q]ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, “^(BF)All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!” ⁴And ^(BG)Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Then he got up early in the morning, and built an ^(BH)altar ^[r]at the foot of the mountain with twelve memorial stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵And he sent young men of the sons of Israel, ^(BI)and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as peace offerings to the Lord. ⁶^(BJ)Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. ⁷Then he took ^(BK)the Book of the Covenant and read it ^[s]as the people listened; and they said, “^(BL)All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!” ⁸So ^(BM)Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Behold ^(BN)the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has ^[t]made with you ^[u]in accordance with all these words.”

⁹Then Moses went up ^[v]with Aaron, ^(BO)Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, ¹⁰and ^(BP)they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet ^[w]^(BQ)there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, ^[x]as clear as the sky itself. ¹¹Yet He did not reach out with His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and ^(BR)they saw God, and they ate and drank.

¹²Now the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and ^[y]stay there, and ^(BS)I will give you the stone tablets ^[z]with the Law and the ^[aa]commandments which I have written for their instruction.” ¹³So Moses got up ^[ab]along with ^(BT)Joshua his ^[ac]servant, and Moses went up to ^(BU)the mountain of God. ¹⁴But to the elders he said, “^(BV)Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, ^(BW)Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever ^[ad]has a legal matter, have him approach them.” ¹⁵Then Moses went up to the mountain, and ^(BX)the cloud covered the mountain. ¹⁶^(BY)The glory of the Lord ^[ae]settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He ^(BZ)called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. ¹⁷^(CA)And to the eyes of the sons of Israel, the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a ^(CB)consuming fire on the mountain top. ¹⁸Then Moses entered the midst of the cloud ^[af]as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain for ^(CC)forty days and forty nights.