Exodus 22-24 (Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition)

Exodus 22

 ¹If any man steal an ox or a sheep, and kill or sell it: he shall restore five oxen for one ox, and four sheep for one sheep.

    ²If a thief be found breaking open a house or undermining it, and be wounded so as to die: he that slew him shall not be guilty of blood.

    ³But if he did this when the sun is risen, he hath committed murder, and he shall die. If he have not wherewith to make restitution for the theft, he shall be sold.

    ⁴If that which he stole be found with him, alive, either ox, or ass, or sheep: he shall restore double.

    ⁵If any man hurt a field or a vineyard, and put in his beast to feed upon that which is other men's: he shall restore the best of whatsoever he hath in his own field, or in his vineyard, according to the estimation of the damage.

    ⁶If a fire breaking out light upon thorns, and catch stacks of corn, or corn standing in the fields, he that kindled the fire shall make good the loss.

    ⁷If a man deliver money, or any vessel unto his friend to keep, and they be stolen away from him that received them: if the thief be found he shall restore double:

    ⁸If the thief be not known, the master of the house shall be brought to the gods, and shall swear that he did not lay his hand upon his neighbour's goods,

    ⁹To do any fraud, either in ox, or in ass, or sheep, or raiment, or any thing that may bring damage: the cause of both parties shall come to the gods: and if they give judgment, he shall restore double to his neighbour.

    ¹⁰If a man deliver ass, ox, sheep, or any beast, to his neighbour's custody, and it die, or be hurt, or be taken by enemies, and no man saw it:

    ¹¹There shall be an oath between them, that he did not put forth his hand to his neighbour's goods: and the owner shall accept of the oath; and he shall not be compelled to make restitution.

    ¹²But if it were taken away by stealth, he shall make the loss good to the owner.

    ¹³If it were eaten by a beast, let him bring to him that which was slain, and he shall not make restitution.

    ¹⁴If a man borrow of his neighbour any of these things, and it be hurt or die, the owner not being present, he shall be obliged to make restitution.

    ¹⁵But if the owner be present, he shall not make restitution, especially if it were hired and came for the hire of his work.

    ¹⁶If a man seduce a virgin not yet espoused, and lie with her: he shall endow her, and have her to wife.

    ¹⁷If the maid's father will not give her to him, he shall give money according to the dowry, which virgins are wont to receive.

    ¹⁸Wizards thou shalt not suffer to live.

    ¹⁹Whosoever copulateth with a beast shall be put to death.

    ²⁰He that sacrificeth to gods, shall be put to death, save only to the Lord.

    ²¹Thou shalt not molest a stranger, nor afflict him: for yourselves also were strangers in the land of Egypt.

    ²²You shall not hurt a widow or an orphan.

    ²³If you hurt them they will cry out to me, and I will hear their cry:

    ²⁴And my rage shall be enkindled, and I will strike you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.

    ²⁵If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor, that dwelleth with thee, thou shalt not be hard upon them as an extortioner, nor oppress them with usuries.

    ²⁶If thou take of thy neighbour a garment in pledge, thou shalt give it him again before sunset.

    ²⁷For that same is the only thing wherewith he is covered, the clothing of his body, neither hath he any other to sleep in: if he cry to me, I will hear him, because I am compassionate.

    ²⁸Thou shalt not speak ill of the gods, and the prince of thy people thou shalt not curse.

    ²⁹Thou shalt not delay to pay thy tithes and thy firstfruits: thou shalt give the firstborn of thy sons to me.

    ³⁰Thou shalt do the same with the firstborn of thy oxen also and sheep: seven days let it be with its dam, the eighth day thou shalt give it to me.

    ³¹You shall be holy men to me: the flesh that beasts have tasted of before, you shall not eat, but shall cast it to the dogs.

   

Exodus 23

 ¹Thou shalt not receive the voice of a lie: neither shalt thou join thy hand to bear false witness for a wicked person.

    ²Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do evil: neither shalt thou yield in judgment, to the opinion of the most part, to stray from the truth.

    ³Neither shalt thou favour a poor man in judgment.

    ⁴If thou meet thy enemy's ox or ass going astray, bring it back to him.

    ⁵If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lie underneath his burden, thou shalt not pass by, but shalt lift him up with him.

    ⁶Thou shalt not go aside in the poor man's judgment.

    ⁷Thou shalt fly lying. The innocent and just person thou shalt not put to death: because I abhor the wicked.

    ⁸Neither shalt thou take bribes, which even blind the wise, and pervert the words of the just.

    ⁹Thou shalt not molest a stranger, for you know the hearts of strangers: for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.

    ¹⁰Six years thou shalt sow thy ground, and shalt gather the corn thereof.

    ¹¹But the seventh year thou shalt let it alone, and suffer it to rest, that the poor of thy people may eat, and whatsoever shall be left, let the beasts of the field eat it: so shalt thou do with thy vineyard and thy oliveyard.

    ¹²Six days thou shalt work: the seventh day thou shalt cease, that thy ox and thy ass may rest: and the son of thy handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed.

    ¹³Keep all things that I have said to you. And by the name of strange gods you shall not swear, neither shall it be heard out of your mouth.

    ¹⁴Three times every year you shall celebrate feasts to me.

    ¹⁵Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month of new corn, when thou didst come forth out of Egypt: thou shalt not appear empty before me.

    ¹⁶And the feast of the harvest of the firstfruits of thy work, whatsoever thou hast sown in the field. The feast also in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in all thy corn out of the field.

    ¹⁷Thrice a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God.

    ¹⁸Thou shalt not sacrifice the blood of my victim upon leaven, neither shall the fat of my solemnity remain until the morning.

    ¹⁹Thou shalt carry the firstfruits of the corn of thy ground to the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in the milk of his dam.

    ²⁰Behold I will send my angel, who shall go before thee, and keep thee in thy journey, and bring thee into the place that I have prepared.

    ²¹Take notice of him, and hear his voice, and do not think him one to be contemned: for he will not forgive when thou hast sinned, and my name is in him.

    ²²But if thou wilt hear his voice, and do all that I speak, I will be an enemy to thy enemies, and will afflict them that afflict thee.

    ²³And my angel shall go before thee, and shall bring thee in unto the Amorrhite, and the Hethite, and the Pherezite, and the Chanaanite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite, whom I will destroy.

    ²⁴Thou shalt not adore their gods, nor serve them. Thou shalt not do their works, but shalt destroy them, and break their statues.

    ²⁵And you shall serve the Lord your God, that I may bless your bread and your waters, and may take away sickness from the midst of thee.

    ²⁶There shall not be one fruitless nor barren in thy land: I will fill the number of thy days.

    ²⁷I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come: and will turn the backs of all thy enemies before thee.

    ²⁸Sending out hornets before, that shall drive away the Hevite, and the Chanaanite, and the Hethite, before thou come in.

    ²⁹I will not cast them out from thy face in one year: lest the land be brought into a wilderness, and the beasts multiply against thee.

    ³⁰By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, till thou be increased, and dost possess the land.

    ³¹And I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea to the sea of the Palestines, and from the desert to the river: I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hands, and will drive them out from before you.

    ³²Thou shalt not enter into league with them, nor with their gods.

    ³³Let them not dwell in thy land, lest perhaps thy make thee sin against me, if thou serve their god: which undoubtedly will be a scandal to thee.

   

Exodus 24

 ¹And he said to Moses: Come up to the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abiu, and seventy of the ancients of Israel, and you shall adore afar off.

    ²And Moses alone shall come up to the Lord, but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people come up with him.

    ³So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice: We will do all the words of the Lord, which he hath spoken.

    ⁴And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord: and rising in the morning he built an altar at the foot of the mount, and twelve titles according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

    ⁵And he sent young men of the children of Israel, and they offered holocausts, and sacrificed pacific victims of calves to the Lord.

    ⁶Then Moses took half of the blood, and put it into bowls: and the rest he poured upon the altar.

    ⁷And taking the book of the covenant, he read it in the hearing of the people: and they said: All things that the Lord hath spoken we will do, we will be obedient.

    ⁸And he took the blood and sprinkled it upon the people, and he said: This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.

    ⁹Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abiu, and seventy of the ancients of Israel went up:

    ¹⁰And they saw the God of Israel: and under his feet as it were a work of sapphire stone, and as the heaven, when clear.

    ¹¹Neither did he lay his hand upon those of the children of Israel, that retired afar off, and they saw God, and they did eat and drink.

    ¹²And the Lord said to Moses: Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and the law, and the commandments which I have written: that thou mayst teach them.

    ¹³Moses rose up, and his minister Josue: and Moses going up into the mount of God,

    ¹⁴Said to the ancients: Wait ye here till we return to you. You have Aaron and Hur with you: if any question shall arise, you shall refer it to them.

    ¹⁵And when Moses was gone up, a cloud covered the mount.

    ¹⁶And the glory of the Lord dwelt upon Sinai, covering it with a cloud six days: and the seventh day he called him out of the midst of the cloud.

    ¹⁷And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a burning fire upon the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel.

    ¹⁸And Moses, entering into the midst of the cloud, went up into the mountain: and he was there forty days, and forty nights.