13-16 “Tear down their altars, smash their phallic pillars, chop down their fertility poles. Don’t worship any other god. God—his name is The-Jealous-One—is a jealous God. Be careful that you don’t make a covenant with the people who live in the land and take up with their sex-and-religion life, join them in meals at their altars, marry your sons to their women, women who take up with any convenient god or goddess and will get your sons to do the same thing.

17 “Don’t make molten gods for yourselves.

18 “Keep the Feast of Unraised Bread. Eat only unraised bread for seven days in the month of Abib—it was in the month of Abib that you came out of Egypt.

19 “Every firstborn from the womb is mine, all the males of your herds, your firstborn oxen and sheep.

20 “Redeem your firstborn donkey with a lamb. If you don’t redeem it you must break its neck.

“Redeem each of your firstborn sons.

“No one is to show up in my presence empty-handed.

21 “Work six days and rest the seventh. Stop working even during plowing and harvesting.

22 “Keep the Feast of Weeks with the first cutting of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.

23-24 “All your men are to appear before the Master, the God of Israel, three times a year. You won’t have to worry about your land when you appear before your God three times each year, for I will drive out the nations before you and give you plenty of land. Nobody’s going to be hanging around plotting ways to get it from you.

25 “Don’t mix the blood of my sacrifices with anything fermented.

“Don’t leave leftovers from the Passover Feast until morning.

26 “Bring the finest of the firstfruits of your produce to the house of your God.

“Don’t boil a kid in its mother’s milk.”

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14 Do not worship any other god,(A) for the Lord, whose name(B) is Jealous, is a jealous God.(C)

15 “Be careful not to make a treaty(D) with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute(E) themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices.(F) 16 And when you choose some of their daughters as wives(G) for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods,(H) they will lead your sons to do the same.

17 “Do not make any idols.(I)

18 “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread.(J) For seven days eat bread made without yeast,(K) as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv,(L) for in that month you came out of Egypt.

19 “The first offspring(M) of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock. 20 Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck.(N) Redeem all your firstborn sons.(O)

“No one is to appear before me empty-handed.(P)

21 “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest;(Q) even during the plowing season and harvest(R) you must rest.

22 “Celebrate the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits(S) of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering(T) at the turn of the year.[a] 23 Three times(U) a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord, the God of Israel. 24 I will drive out nations(V) before you and enlarge your territory,(W) and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the Lord your God.

25 “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast,(X) and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Festival remain until morning.(Y)

26 “Bring the best of the firstfruits(Z) of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.

“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”(AA)

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Footnotes

  1. Exodus 34:22 That is, in the autumn