Justice for All

23 “You ^(A)shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an ^(B)unrighteous witness. ^2 (C)You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; ^(D)nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice. ³ You shall not show partiality to a ^(E)poor man in his dispute.

^4 (F)“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. ^5 (G)If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it.

^6 (H)“You shall not pervert the judgment of your poor in his dispute. ^7 (I)Keep yourself far from a false matter; ^(J)do not kill the innocent and righteous. For ^(K)I will not justify the wicked. ⁸ And ^(L)you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous.

⁹ “Also ^(M)you shall not oppress a ^[a]stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

The Law of Sabbaths

^10 (N)“Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, ¹¹ but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your ^[b]olive grove. ^12 (O)Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.

¹³ “And in all that I have said to you, ^(P)be circumspect and ^(Q)make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth.

Three Annual Feasts^(R)

^14 (S)“Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: ^15 (T)You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; ^(U)none shall appear before Me empty); ^16 (V)and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and ^(W)the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.

^17 (X)“Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord ^[c]God.

^18 (Y)“You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened ^(Z)bread; nor shall the fat of My ^[d]sacrifice remain until morning. ^19 (AA)The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. ^(AB)You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

The Angel and the Promises

^20 (AC)“Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. ²¹ Beware of Him and obey His voice; ^(AD)do not provoke Him, for He will ^(AE)not pardon your transgressions; for ^(AF)My name is in Him. ²² But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then ^(AG)I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. ^23 (AH)For My Angel will go before you and ^(AI)bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will ^[e]cut them off. ²⁴ You shall not ^(AJ)bow down to their gods, nor serve them, ^(AK)nor do according to their works; ^(AL)but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars.

²⁵ “So you shall ^(AM)serve the Lord your God, and ^(AN)He will bless your bread and your water. And ^(AO)I will take sickness away from the midst of you. ^26 (AP)No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will ^(AQ)fulfill the number of your days.

²⁷ “I will send ^(AR)My fear before you, I will ^(AS)cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. ²⁸ And ^(AT)I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. ^29 (AU)I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. ³⁰ Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land. ³¹ And ^(AV)I will set your ^[f]bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert to the ^[g]River. For I will ^(AW)deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. ^32 (AX)You shall make no ^[h]covenant with them, nor with their gods. ³³ They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, ^(AY)it will surely be a snare to you.”

Israel Affirms the Covenant

24 Now He said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, ^(AZ)Nadab and Abihu, ^(BA)and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. ² And Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come near; nor shall the people go up with him.”

³ So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the ^[i]judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, ^(BB)“All the words which the Lord has said we will do.” ⁴ And Moses ^(BC)wrote all the words of the Lord. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve ^(BD)pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered ^(BE)burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. ⁶ And Moses ^(BF)took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. ⁷ Then he ^(BG)took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient.” ⁸ And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is ^(BH)the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.”

On the Mountain with God

⁹ Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, ¹⁰ and they ^(BI)saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of ^(BJ)sapphire stone, and it was like the ^(BK)very^[j] heavens in its clarity. ¹¹ But on the nobles of the children of Israel He ^(BL)did not ^[k]lay His hand. So ^(BM)they saw God, and they ^(BN)ate and drank.

¹² Then the Lord said to Moses, ^(BO)“Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you ^(BP)tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.”

¹³ So Moses arose with ^(BQ)his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. ¹⁴ And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Indeed, Aaron and ^(BR)Hur are with you. If any man has a difficulty, let him go to them.” ¹⁵ Then Moses went up into the mountain, and ^(BS)a cloud covered the mountain.

¹⁶ Now ^(BT)the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. ¹⁷ The sight of the glory of the Lord was like ^(BU)a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. ¹⁸ So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And ^(BV)Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

The Perfect Revelation of the Lord

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

²³ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ^(A)For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and ^(B)have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. ²⁴ Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

²⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ^(C)For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and ^[a]self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

²⁷ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ^(D)For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. ²⁸ Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

^29 (E)“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and ^[b]adorn the monuments of the righteous, ³⁰ and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’

³¹ “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that ^(F)you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ^32 (G)Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. ³³ Serpents, ^(H)brood^[c] of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? ^34 (I)Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: ^(J)some of them you will kill and crucify, and ^(K)some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, ^35 (L)that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, ^(M)from the blood of righteous Abel to ^(N)the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. ³⁶ Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Jesus Laments over Jerusalem^(O)

^37 (P)“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets ^(Q)and stones those who are sent to her! How often ^(R)I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks ^(S)under her wings, but you were not willing! ³⁸ See! Your house is left to you desolate; ³⁹ for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ^(T)‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”