Exode 23
La Bible du Semeur
La loi sur l’exercice de la justice
23 Tu ne colporteras pas de rumeur sans fondement. Ne te rends pas complice d’un méchant par un faux témoignage[a]. 2 Ne suis pas la majorité pour faire le mal et, si tu es appelé à témoigner dans un procès, ne te conforme pas au grand nombre pour fausser le droit. 3 Ne favorise pas un pauvre dans un procès[b].
4 Si tu rencontres le bœuf de ton ennemi ou son âne égaré, tu ne manqueras pas de les lui ramener[c]. 5 Lorsque tu verras l’âne de celui qui te déteste succomber sous sa charge, et que tu n’auras pas envie d’aider cet homme, aide-le quand même à délester son âne.
6 Ne fausse pas le cours de la justice aux dépens du pauvre dans un procès[d]. 7 Ne te mêle pas d’une cause mensongère et ne cause pas la mort de l’innocent et du juste, car je ne tiendrai pas le coupable pour innocent. 8 Tu n’accepteras pas de pot-de-vin, car les présents aveuglent même des hommes lucides et compromettent la cause des justes.
9 Tu n’opprimeras pas l’étranger qui réside dans ton pays ; vous savez vous-mêmes ce qu’éprouve un étranger, puisque vous l’avez été en Egypte[e].
La loi sur les divers sabbats
10 Pendant six années tu ensemenceras ta terre et tu en récolteras les produits[f] ; 11 mais la septième année, tu la laisseras en jachère. Les pauvres de ton peuple mangeront ce qu’ils y trouveront et ce qu’ils laisseront nourrira les bêtes sauvages. Tu feras de même pour tes vignes et tes oliviers.
12 Pendant six jours, tu feras tout ton travail, mais le septième jour, tu l’interrompras pour que ton bœuf et ton âne jouissent du repos, et que le fils de ta servante et l’étranger puissent reprendre leur souffle[g].
13 Vous veillerez à observer tout ce que je vous ai prescrit. Vous n’invoquerez jamais des dieux étrangers ; qu’ils ne soient même pas nommés par vous.
La loi sur les trois grandes fêtes
14 Trois fois par an, tu célébreras une fête en mon honneur. 15 Tu célébreras la fête des Pains sans levain. Pendant sept jours, tu mangeras des pains sans levain au temps fixé, au mois des épis[h], comme je te l’ai ordonné, car c’est au cours de ce mois que tu es sorti d’Egypte. Tu ne te présenteras pas devant moi les mains vides[i]. 16 Tu célébreras aussi la fête de la Moisson[j] et des Premiers Fruits de ton travail, de ce que tu auras semé dans les champs. A la fin de l’année, tu célébreras aussi la fête de la Récolte[k], quand tu rentreras des champs le fruit de ton travail. 17 Trois fois l’an, tous les hommes viendront se présenter devant moi le Seigneur, l’Eternel.
18 Tu ne verseras pas le sang des sacrifices qui me sont offerts sur du pain levé, et tu ne conserveras pas jusqu’au matin la graisse des animaux offerts au cours des fêtes célébrées en mon honneur. 19 Tu apporteras au sanctuaire de l’Eternel ton Dieu les tout premiers produits de tes récoltes[l]. Tu ne feras pas cuire un chevreau dans le lait de sa mère[m].
Les perspectives en vue de la conquête
20 Je vais envoyer un ange devant vous pour vous protéger en chemin et vous conduire au lieu que j’ai préparé pour vous. 21 Respectez-le et obéissez-lui. Ne lui résistez pas, il ne tolérerait pas votre rébellion, car il est mon représentant. 22 Mais si vous lui obéissez pleinement et si vous faites tout ce que je vous ai ordonné, je serai l’ennemi de vos ennemis et l’adversaire de vos adversaires. 23 Car mon ange marchera devant vous et vous fera entrer dans le pays des Amoréens, des Hittites, des Phéréziens, des Cananéens, des Héviens et des Yebousiens, et je les exterminerai. 24 Vous n’adorerez pas leurs dieux et vous ne leur rendrez pas de culte, vous n’adopterez pas leurs pratiques religieuses. Au contraire, vous renverserez leurs statues et vous mettrez en pièces leurs stèles sacrées. 25 Vous rendrez votre culte à l’Eternel votre Dieu. Alors je vous bénirai en vous donnant une nourriture excellente et de l’eau en abondance, et je vous préserverai des maladies. 26 Il n’y aura pas dans votre pays de femme qui avorte ou qui soit stérile. Je vous ferai parvenir à un âge avancé.
27 Je sèmerai la panique devant vous, je mettrai en déroute tous les peuples chez lesquels vous entrerez, et je ferai s’enfuir tous vos ennemis devant vous. 28 J’enverrai devant vous les frelons pour chasser les Héviens, les Cananéens et les Hittites devant vous. 29 Cependant, je ne les chasserai pas en une seule année, pour que les terres ne soient pas abandonnées et que les bêtes sauvages ne s’y multiplient pas à vos dépens. 30 C’est petit à petit que je les déposséderai en votre faveur, au fur et à mesure que vous deviendrez assez nombreux pour occuper le pays. 31 Je fixerai vos frontières, et votre territoire s’étendra de la mer des Roseaux à la Méditerranée qui borde le pays des Philistins[n], et du désert du Sinaï à l’Euphrate, car je livrerai les habitants de cette région en votre pouvoir et vous les chasserez devant vous. 32 Vous ne contracterez pas d’alliance avec eux, ni avec leurs dieux. 33 Ils ne demeureront pas dans votre pays, afin qu’ils ne vous incitent pas à pécher contre moi en vous faisant rendre un culte à leurs dieux, car vous seriez alors pris à leur piège.
Footnotes
- 23.1 Voir Ex 20.16 ; Lv 19.11-12 ; Dt 5.20.
- 23.3 Voir Lv 19.15 ; Dt 16.19.
- 23.4 Pour les v. 4-5, voir Dt 22.1-4.
- 23.6 Pour les v. 6-8, voir Lv 19.15 ; Dt 16.19.
- 23.9 Voir Ex 22.20-21 ; Lv 19.33-34 ; Dt 24.17-18 ; 27.19.
- 23.10 Pour les v. 10-11, voir Lv 25.1-7.
- 23.12 Voir Ex 16.23-30 ; 20.8-11 ; 31.12-17 ; 34.21 ; 35.2 ; Lv 23.3 ; Dt 5.13-14.
- 23.15 Mois d’Abib ou de l’Epi, appelé plus tard Nisân, premier mois de l’année juive (13.4), correspondant à la première pleine lune de printemps (mars-avril).
- 23.15 Pour les v. 15-16, voir Ex 12.14-20 ; 34.18 ; Lv 23.6-8, 15-21 ; Nb 28.17-31 ; 29.12 ; Dt 16.1-17.
- 23.16 Appelée aussi fête des Semaines (34.22) – parce qu’elle était célébrée sept semaines après la Pâque – ou Pentecôte (qui signifie « cinquante jours »). Elle coïncidait avec la fin de la moisson.
- 23.16 Fête d’Automne appelée plus tard fête des Cabanes. Elle se célébrait au quinzième jour du septième mois et marquait la fin des récoltes (Dt 16.13 ; Lv 23.24).
- 23.19 Voir Dt 26.2.
- 23.19 Voir Ex 34.26 ; Dt 14.21. Il s’agit peut-être d’un rituel païen cananéen que les Israélites devaient se garder d’imiter (v. 33 ; 34.15), ou d’une prescription symbolisant l’interdiction de mélanger la vie (lait provenant d’une femelle vivante) et la mort (chevreau), ou encore d’une manière de marquer le souci de la préservation de la vie animale (cp. Lv 22.28 ; Dt 22.6-7).
- 23.31 Appelée en hébreu : la mer des Philistins.
Exodus 23
EasyEnglish Bible
Rules for justice
23 Do not make false reports. Do not tell lies in court to help wicked people.
2 Do not join a group of bad people to do evil things. When you speak in court, tell the truth so that the judges will decide what is right. Do not tell lies to agree with what everyone else says. 3 Do not speak on behalf of a poor man only because you like him.
4 Perhaps you may find your enemy's cow or his donkey when he has lost it. If so, you must give it back to him. 5 Perhaps you may see your enemy's donkey when it is carrying a heavy load. If the donkey has fallen down, do not refuse to give help. Do not leave the donkey there.
6 Always do what is right for your poor people when they stand in front of a judge. 7 Do not help anyone to use lies to accuse another person. Never punish anyone with death if they are not guilty. I will never say that a wicked person is not guilty.
8 Do not accept a bribe. A bribe will hide the truth even from honest people. It can make good people tell lies.
9 Do not be cruel to a foreign person who lives among you. You yourselves know what that feels like. Remember that you lived in Egypt as foreigners.
Rules about the Sabbath day and Feasts
10 You must plant seed in your fields for six years. Then you can bring your crops home at harvest time. 11 But in the seventh year, you must let your fields lie empty. Do not dig them and do not plant anything in them. Then poor people among you can eat the food that they find in your fields. After that, the wild animals can eat any food that still remains. Do the same thing with your vineyards and your fields of olive trees.
12 Do your work for six days each week, but do not work on the seventh day. Then your oxen and your donkeys will have time to rest. Any slave who was born in your home and any foreigner who works for you may also have time to rest. That will help them to be strong.
13 Be careful to obey everything that I have told you. Do not pray to other gods for help. Do not even speak about them.
14 Three times each year, you must eat a feast to give me honour.
15 Eat the Feast of Flat Bread every year. For seven days, you must eat bread that you have made without any yeast. I have commanded you to do this. Do it at the right time during the month Abib. It was in that month that you came out of Egypt. Nobody must come to me without an offering.
16 Eat the Feast of Harvest every year. Offer to me the first crops that you bring from your fields.[a]
At the end of each year, eat Feast of Final Harvest. Do that when you have finished bringing in all of your crops from the fields.
17 Three times each year, all your men must come to worship the Almighty Lord.
18 When you kill an animal to offer it to me as a sacrifice, do not offer it with bread that has yeast in it. Be sure to burn all the fat of the animal on the same day. Do not keep any of it until the next morning.
19 When you cut the first crops from your fields, bring the best food to the house of the Lord your God.
Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.
God's special angel
20 Look! I will send an angel to lead you on your journey. He will keep you safe. He will take you to the place that I have prepared for you. 21 Be careful to obey him. Listen to what he says to you. Do not turn against him. If you do that, he will not forgive you. I have given him my authority. 22 So be careful to obey him. Do everything that I tell you. Then I will be the enemy of your enemies. I will fight against anyone who fights against you. 23 My angel will go in front of you. He will bring you into the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. I will destroy them completely. 24 Do not worship their gods. Do not serve them. Do not copy the evil things that these people do. Destroy their idols and break their special stones into pieces.
25 You must serve only me, the Lord your God. Then I will bless your food and your water. I will remove illness from among you. 26 Your women will safely give birth to babies. They will all be able to have children. Everyone will live a long life.
27 I will cause all the nations that you meet to be afraid. All the people who attack you will become confused. I will cause all your enemies to turn round and run away from you. 28 I will send great fear on the people as you move into the land.[b] That will chase out the Hivites, the Canaanites and the Hittites. 29 But I will not chase out those people in one year. If I did that, the country would become empty of people. Then there would be many wild animals that would cause trouble to you. 30 I will remove the people slowly, one group at a time. As you become strong, you will take the land as your own home.
31 I will decide where the borders of your land will be. You will have the land from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will put the people who live there under your power. As you move into the land, you will chase those people out.
32 Do not make any agreement with them or with their gods. 33 Do not let them live in your land. They would cause you to do bad things against me. If you serve their gods, you will become like their prisoners.’
Exodus 23
New King James Version
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.”
Footnotes
- Exodus 23:9 sojourner
- Exodus 23:11 olive yards
- Exodus 23:17 Heb. YHWH, usually translated Lord
- Exodus 23:18 feast
- Exodus 23:23 annihilate them
- Exodus 23:31 boundaries
- Exodus 23:31 Heb. Nahar, the Euphrates
- Exodus 23:32 treaty
La Bible Du Semeur (The Bible of the Sower) Copyright © 1992, 1999 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
