Beginning
Laws About Restitution
22 If a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, then he shall repay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.
2 If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, then there will be no blood guilt for him. 3 If the sun has risen on him, then there is blood guilt for him.
He must make full restitution. If he has nothing, then he will be sold for his theft. 4 If the stolen item is in fact found alive in his possession, whether it be an ox, or donkey, or sheep, then he shall repay double.
5 If a man causes a field or vineyard to be eaten and puts out his beast so that it feeds in another man’s field, he must make restitution of the best of his own field and of the best of his own vineyard.
6 If fire breaks out and catches in thorn bushes, so that stacked grain or the standing grain or the field are consumed, then he who started the fire must surely make restitution.
7 If a man gives his neighbor money or items to be kept for him, and it is stolen from the man’s house, if the thief is caught, he must repay double. 8 If the thief is not caught, then the owner of the house will be brought before the judges to determine if he has laid his hand on his neighbor’s goods. 9 For any kind of trespass, whether it be for an ox, for a donkey, for a sheep, for clothing, or for any type of lost thing, where another says it is his, the case of both parties shall come before the judges. And whoever the judges find guilty will pay double to his neighbor.
10 If a man gives his neighbor a donkey, or an ox, or a sheep, or any beast to keep for him, and it dies, or is injured, or is driven away while no one sees it, 11 then there will be an oath before the Lord between both of them that he has not laid his hand upon his neighbor’s property. And its owner must accept this, and he will not have to make restitution. 12 However, if it was stolen from him, he shall make restitution to its owner. 13 If it is torn in pieces, then let him bring it as evidence, and he will not have to repay for that which was torn.
14 If a man borrows anything from his neighbor, and it is hurt or dies when the owner was not with it, then he shall surely make restitution. 15 But if the owner was with it, he shall not make restitution. If it was a hired thing, it came with his hire.
Moral and Ceremonial Laws
16 If a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged and has relations with her, he must surely endow her to be his wife. 17 If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must pay money according to the dowry of virgins.
18 You must not allow a sorceress to live.
19 Whoever has relations with a beast must surely be put to death.
20 He who sacrifices to any god other than the Lord alone shall be utterly destroyed.
21 You must neither wrong a foreigner nor oppress him, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
22 You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. 23 If you afflict them in any way and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry. 24 And My anger will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will become widows, and your children fatherless.
25 If you lend money to any of My people who is poor among you, do not be a creditor to him, and do not charge him interest. 26 If you take your neighbor’s garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, 27 for that is his only covering; it is his garment for his body. In what else will he sleep? And when he cries out to Me, I will hear, for I am gracious.
28 You shall not curse God or curse the ruler of your people.
29 You must not delay to offer the first of your harvest and of your vats.
You must give to Me the firstborn of your sons. 30 Likewise you must do the same with your oxen and with your sheep. Seven days it shall remain with its mother, but on the eighth day you must give it to Me.
31 You will be holy men to Me; therefore you must not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field. You must throw it to the dogs.
Laws of Justice and Mercy
23 You must not give a false report. Do not join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness.
2 You must not follow the masses to do evil, and do not testify in a dispute that agrees with the crowd to pervert justice. 3 You must not show partiality to a poor man in his dispute.
4 If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely return it to him. 5 If you see the donkey of someone who hates you lying under its burden, you must not ignore it; you must surely help with him.
6 You shall not turn justice away from your poor in his dispute. 7 Keep far away from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and the righteous, for I will not justify the wicked.
8 You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and subverts the words of the righteous.
9 Also you shall not oppress a foreigner, for you know the life of a foreigner, seeing you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
The Laws of Sabbaths
10 You shall sow your land for six years and shall gather in its produce, 11 but in the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat, and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard and with your olive grove.
12 For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you must cease, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the foreigner may refresh themselves.
13 In all things that I have said to you, watch yourselves, and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth.
The Three Annual Feasts
14 Three times in the year you must celebrate a feast to Me.
15 You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month Aviv, for in it you came out from Egypt.
No one shall appear before Me empty-handed.
16 You shall observe the Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you have sown in the field.
You shall observe the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.
17 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.
18 You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread, nor shall the fat of My sacrifice remain until the morning.
19 The first of the first fruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.
You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
The Angel Prepares the Way
20 Indeed, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Be on guard before him and obey his voice. Do not provoke him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for My name is in him. 22 But if you diligently obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 23 For My angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will completely destroy them. 24 You must not bow down to their gods, or serve them, or do according to their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break down their images in pieces. 25 You shall serve the Lord your God, and He shall bless your bread and your water, and I will remove sickness from your midst. 26 No one shall be miscarrying or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days.
27 I will send My fear before you, and I will throw into panic all the people to whom you shall come. I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28 I will send hornets before you which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. 29 I will not drive them out before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field multiply against you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you become fruitful and inherit the land.
31 I will set your boundaries from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River;[a] for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you. 32 You must not make a covenant with them or with their gods. 33 They shall not live in your land, lest they cause you to sin against Me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.
The Covenant Confirmed
24 Then He said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and you shall worship from a distance. 2 Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come near, nor may the people go up with him.”
3 Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances. Then all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the Lord has said we will do.” 4 Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 He sent young Israelite men who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of young bulls to the Lord. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 He 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 we will be obedient.”
8 So Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
Moses on Mount Sinai
9 Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10 and they saw the God of Israel, and under His feet there was something like a paved work of sapphire stone as clear as the sky itself. 11 He did not lay His hand upon the nobles of the children of Israel. Also they saw God, and they ate and they drank.
12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me to the mountain and stay there, and I will give you the stone tablets with law and the commandments which I have written, so that you may teach them.”
13 Moses rose up with Joshua his attendant, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. 14 He said to the elders, “Wait for us in this place until we return to you. Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has any matters of dispute let him come to them.”
15 Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain to the eyes of the children of Israel. 18 Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up to the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.