Old/New Testament

Regulations Regarding Justice

23 “‘You will not spread^[a] a false report. Do not lift your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness. ² You will not follow^[b] a majority^[c] for evil, and you will not testify concerning a legal dispute to turn aside after a majority^[d] to pervert justice. ³ You will not be partial to a powerless person^[e] in his legal dispute.

⁴ “‘If you come upon the ox of your enemy or his donkey going astray, you will certainly bring it back to him. ⁵ If you see the donkey of your enemy lying down under its burden, you will refrain from abandoning him. You will surely arrange^[f] it with him.

⁶ “‘You will not pervert the justice of your poor in his legal dispute. ⁷ You will stay far from a false charge,^[g] and do not kill the innocent and the righteous, because I will not declare the wicked righteous.^{[h] 8} And you will not take a bribe, because the bribe makes the sighted blind and ruins the words of the righteous. ⁹ And you will not oppress an alien; you yourselves know the feelings^[i] of the alien, because you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

Regulations Regarding Work and Festivals

¹⁰ “‘And six years you will sow your land and gather its yield. ¹¹ But the seventh you will let it rest and leave it fallow, and the poor of your people will eat, and their remainder the animals^[j] of the field will eat. You will do likewise for your vineyard and for your olive trees.

¹² “‘Six days you will do your work, but on the seventh day you will stop so that your ox and your donkey will rest and the son of your slave woman and the alien will be refreshed.

¹³ “‘And you will be attentive to all that I have said to you, and you will not profess^[k] the name of other gods; it will not be heard in your mouth.

¹⁴ “‘Three times in the year you will hold a festival for me. ¹⁵ You will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you will eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you at the appointed time, the month of Abib, because in it you came out from Egypt, and no one will^[l] appear before me empty-handed. ¹⁶ And you will keep the Feast of Harvest, with the firstfruits of your work, what you sow in the field. And you will keep the Feast of Harvest Gathering when the year goes out, when you gather your work from the field. ¹⁷ Three times in the year all your men will appear before the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁸ “‘You will not sacrifice the blood of my sacrifice together with food with yeast, and you will not leave the fat of my feast overnight until morning.

¹⁹ “‘The best of the firstfruits of your land you will bring to the house of Yahweh your God.

“‘You will not boil a young goat^[m] in its mother’s milk.

Reasons for Loyal Obedience

²⁰ “‘Look, I am about to send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. ²¹ Be attentive to him and listen to his voice; do not rebel against him, because he will not forgive your transgression, for my name is in him. ²² But if you listen attentively to his voice and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes. ²³ When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites^[n] and the Hittites^[o] and the Perizzites^[p] and the Canaanites^[q] and the Hivites^[r] and the Jebusites,^[s] I will wipe them out.

²⁴ “‘You will not bow to their gods, and you will not serve them, and you will not act according to their actions, because you will utterly demolish them, and you will utterly break their stone pillars. ²⁵ And you will serve Yahweh your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will remove sickness from among you. ²⁶ There will be no one suffering miscarriage or infertile in your land. I will make full the number of your days.^[t]

²⁷ “‘I will release my terror before you, and I will throw into confusion all the people against whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their back to you.^{[u] 28} And I will send the hornet before you, and it will drive out the Hivites,^[v] the Canaanites,^[w] and the Hittites^[x] from before you. ²⁹ I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become a desolation and the wild animals^[y] multiply against you. ³⁰ Little by little I will drive them out from before you until you are fruitful and take possession of the land.

³¹ “‘And I will set your boundary from the Red Sea^[z] and up to the sea of the Philistines and from the desert up to the river,^[aa] because I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out from before you. ³² You will not make a covenant with them and with their gods. ³³ They will not live in your land, lest they cause you to sin against me when you serve their gods, for it will be a snare to you.’”

Confirming the Covenant

24 And to Moses he said, “Go up to Yahweh—you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy from the elders of Israel—and you will worship at a distance. ² And Moses alone^[ab] will come near to Yahweh, and they will not come near, and the people will not go up with him.”

³ And Moses came, and he told the people all the words of Yahweh and all the regulations. And all the people answered with one voice, and they said, “All the words that Yahweh has spoken we will do.”

⁴ And Moses wrote all the words of Yahweh, and he rose early in the morning, and he built an altar at the base of the mountain and set up twelve memorial stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ And he sent young men from the Israelites,^[ac] and they offered burnt offerings, and they sacrificed sacrifices as fellowship offerings to Yahweh using bulls. ⁶ And Moses took half of the blood, and he put it in bowls, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. ⁷ And he took the scroll of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will listen.”^{[ad] 8} And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and he said, “Look, the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

⁹ And Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy from the elders of Israel went up. ¹⁰ And they saw the God of Israel, and what was under his feet was like sapphire tile work and like the very heavens for clearness. ¹¹ And toward the leaders of the Israelites^[ae] he did not stretch out his hand, and they beheld God, and they ate, and they drank.

The Start of Forty Days and Nights on Mount Sinai

¹² And Yahweh said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and be there, and I will give you the tablets of stone and the law and the commandments that I have written to instruct them.” ¹³ And Moses got up, and Joshua, his assistant, and Moses went up to the mountain of God.

¹⁴ And to the elders he said, “Wait for us here until we return to you. And look, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute^[af] will bring it to you.”

¹⁵ And Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. ¹⁶ And the glory of Yahweh settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days, and he called to Moses on the seventh day from the midst of the cloud. ¹⁷ And the appearance of the glory of Yahweh was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain to the eyes of^[ag] the Israelites.^{[ah] 18} And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and he went up the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man—the master of the house—who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. ² And after^[a] coming to an agreement with the workers for a denarius per day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. ⁴ And to those people he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.’ ⁵ So they went. Going out^[b] again about the sixth and ninth hour he did the same thing. ⁶ And about the eleventh hour he went out and^[c] found others standing there and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here the whole day unemployed?’ ⁷ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go also into the vineyard.’ ⁸ And when^[d] evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and pay them their^[e] wages, beginning from the last up to the first.’ ⁹ And when the ones hired about the eleventh hour came, they received a denarius apiece. ¹⁰ And when^[f] the first came, they thought that they would receive more, and they also received a denarius apiece. ¹¹ And when they^[g] received it,^[h] they began to complain^[i] against the master of the house, ¹² saying, ‘These last people worked one hour and you made them equal to us who have endured the burden of the day and the burning heat!’ ¹³ But he answered one of them and^[j] said, ‘Friend, I am not doing you wrong. Did you not come to an agreement with me for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take what is yours and go! But I want to give to this last person the same as I gave^[k] to you also. ¹⁵ Is it not^[l] permitted for me to do whatever I want with what is mine? Or is your eye evil because I am generous?’ ¹⁶ Thus the last will be first and the first last.”