Exodus 23

Wycliffe Bible

23 Thou shalt not receive a voice of leasing (Thou shalt not spread a rumour, or a lie), (and) thou shalt not raise thine hand, that is, make (a) covenant, either (a) promise, that thou say false witnessing for a wicked man.

² Thou shalt not follow a company to do evil, neither thou shalt assent to the sentence of full many men in doom, that thou go away from truth. (Thou shalt not follow a crowd and do evil, nor shalt thou agree with the sentence, or the decree, of a great many men in judgement, and in doing so, go away from the truth.)

³ Also thou shalt not have mercy of a poor man in a cause, or doom. (And thou shalt not favour a poor person in his case, or in its judgement.)

⁴ If thou meetest thine enemy’s ox, either his ass, straying, lead it again to him. (If thou seest thy enemy’s ox, or his donkey, straying, lead it back to him.)

⁵ If thou seest that the ass of him that hateth thee lieth under a burden, thou shalt not pass, but thou shalt raise up it with him. (If thou seest that the donkey of him who hateth thee lieth under a burden, thou shalt not pass by, but thou shalt raise it up with him.)

⁶ Thou shalt not bow [away] from truth in the doom of a poor man. (Thou shalt not turn away from the truth in the judgement of a poor person.)

⁷ Thou shalt flee leasing. Thou shalt not slay an innocent man, and just; for I am adversary to a wicked man. (Thou shalt flee from lies. Thou shalt not kill the innocent, or the just; for I am the adversary to the wicked.)

⁸ Take thou not gifts, that blind, yea, prudent men, and destroy the words of just men. (Do not take gifts, or bribes, that blind, yea, the prudent, and that destroy the words of the just.)

⁹ Thou shalt not be dis-easeful of a pilgrim, for ye know the souls of comelings, for also ye were pilgrims in the land of Egypt. (Thou shalt not mis-treat a foreigner, for ye know the souls of newcomers, for ye were foreigners in the land of Egypt.)

¹⁰ Six years thou shalt sow thy land, and thou shalt gather [the] fruits thereof;

¹¹ forsooth in the seventh year thou shalt leave it, and make it to rest, that the poor men of thy people eat, and whatever is left ungathered, the beasts of the field eat it; so thou shalt do in thy vinery, and in the place of thine olive trees. (but in the seventh year thou shalt let it be, and allow it to rest, and thy poor people shall get food from it, and whatever is left ungathered, the beasts of the field shall eat it; so shalt thou also do with thy vineyard, and with the place of thy olive trees.)

¹² Six days thou shalt work, and in the seventh day thou shalt cease, that thine ox, and thine ass rest, and the son of thine handmaid, and the comeling be refreshed. (For six days thou shalt work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest, so that thy ox, and thy donkey, can also rest, and so that the son of thy slave-girl, and the newcomer, or the foreigner, can be refreshed.)

¹³ Keep ye all things, which I [have] said to you; and ye shall not swear by the name of alien gods, neither it shall be heard of your mouth. (Hold ye onto all the things, that I have said to you; and ye shall not swear in the name of foreign, or other, gods, nor shall it be heard coming out of your mouths.)

¹⁴ In three times by all years ye shall hallow feasts to me. (Three times each year ye shall dedicate Feasts to me.)

¹⁵ Thou shalt keep the solemnity of therf loaves; seven days thou shalt eat therf bread, as I commanded to thee, in the time of [the] month of new things, when thou wentest out of Egypt; thou shalt not appear void in my sight. (Thou shalt keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded to thee, at the time of the month of Abib, when thou wentest out of Egypt; and thou shalt not appear before me empty-handed.)

¹⁶ And thou shalt keep the solemnity of the month of the first things of thy works, (of) whatever things thou hast sown in the field. Also thou shalt keep the solemnity in the going out of the year, when thou hast gathered all thy fruits of the field. (And thou shalt keep the Feast of the First Fruits^[a] of thy works, with whatever things thou hast sown in the field. And thou shalt keep the Feast of Ingathering^[b], when thou hast gathered in all thy fruits from the field, in the going out of the year.)

¹⁷ (So) Thrice in the year all thy male kind shall appear before thy Lord God.

¹⁸ Thou shalt not offer the blood of thy slain sacrifice on sourdough; neither the fatness of my solemnity shall dwell till to the morrowtide. (Thou shalt not offer the blood of my slain sacrifice with anything made with yeast; and the fat of my sacrifice for any Feast shall not remain until the morning.)

¹⁹ Thou shalt bear the first things of the fruits of thy land into the house of thy Lord God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in the milk of his mother.

²⁰ Lo! I send mine angel, that shall go before thee, and shall keep thee in the way, and shall lead thee to the place which I have made ready to thee. (Lo! I shall send an angel before thee, and he shall keep thee safe on the way, and he shall lead thee to the place which I have prepared for thee.)

²¹ Take thou heed to him, and hear thou his voice, neither guess thou him to be despised, or despisable; for he shall not forgive (thee), when thou sinnest, and my name is in him (for my authority is with him).

²² For if thou hearest his voice, and doest all things which I speak (But if thou listenest to his voice, and doest all the things which I say to thee), I shall be (an) enemy to thine enemies, and I shall torment them, that torment thee;

²³ and mine angel shall go before thee, and he shall lead in thee to Amorites (and he shall lead thee to the Amorites), and Hittites, and Perizzites, and Canaanites, and Hivites, and Jebusites, which I shall break, or destroy.

²⁴ Thou shalt not honour the gods of them, neither thou shalt worship them; thou shalt not do the works of them (thou shalt not follow their rites), but thou shalt destroy their gods, and thou shalt break the images of them.

²⁵ And ye shall serve to your Lord God, (so) that I (can) bless thy loaves, and thy waters, and do away sickness from the midst of thee;

²⁶ neither a woman unfruitful, neither barren, shall be in thy land (no unfruitful, or barren, woman shall be in thy land); (and) I shall fulfill the number of thy days.

²⁷ I shall send my dread into thy before-going (I shall send the fear of me before thee), and I shall slay all the people, to which thou shalt enter, and I shall turn the backs of all thine enemies before thee;

²⁸ and I shall send out before thee crabrones, or stinging flies, that shall drive away (the) Hivite, and Canaanite, and Hittite, before that thou enter.

²⁹ (But) I shall not cast them out from thy face in one year, lest the land be turned into wilderness, and beasts increase against thee;

³⁰ little and little I shall cast them out from thy sight, till thou be increased, and wield the land.

³¹ Forsooth and I shall set thy terms from the Red Sea till to the sea of Palestines, and from the desert till to the flood (And I shall set thy borders from the Red Sea unto the Sea of the Philistines, or the Mediterranean Sea, and from the wilderness unto the Euphrates River). I shall give (in)to your hands the dwellers of the land, and I shall cast them out from your sight;

³² thou shalt not make bond of peace with them, neither with their gods. (thou shalt not make a covenant with them, nor with their gods.)

³³ Dwell they not in thy land, lest peradventure they make thee to do sin against me; if thou servest their gods, which thing certainly shall be to thee into cause of stumbling. (They shall not continue to live in thy land, lest they make thee to sin against me; for if thou servest their gods, that certainly shall become a cause of stumbling for thee.)