Exodus 23

All 33 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.

Read Exodus 23 in the Bible reader, with audio →

1. 1Don't spread false reports. Never team up with a wicked person to give dishonest testimony.
2. 2Don't follow a crowd into doing evil. When you testify in a legal case, don't side with the majority just to twist justice.
3. 3Don't show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit either.
4. 4If you come across your enemy's ox or donkey wandering off, you must bring it back to him.
5. 5If you see the donkey of someone who hates you collapsed under its load, don't walk away. You must stop and help him with it.
6. 6Don't deny justice to your poor people when they bring a case to court.
7. 7"Keep far from a false matter, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not justify the wicked."
8. 8Do not accept any gift, because a gift blinds the wise and distorts the words of the righteous.
9. 9Don't oppress a foreigner. You know what it feels like to be a foreigner, because you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
10. 10For 6 years, plant your land and harvest its crops.
11. 11But during the 7th year, let the land rest and leave it unplowed. The poor among your people can eat whatever grows on its own, and the wild animals can eat what's left over. Do the same with your vineyards and olive groves.
12. 12"You shall do your work for 6 days, and on the 7th day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed."
13. 13Pay careful attention to everything I've told you. Never speak the names of other gods — don't even let their names come out of your mouth.
14. 14Celebrate a festival in my honor 3 times a year.
15. 15Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For 7 days, eat bread made without yeast at the appointed time in the month of Abib, just as I commanded you — because that's the month you came out of Egypt. No one is to appear before me empty-handed.
16. 16Also celebrate the Festival of Harvest, when you bring in the first fruits of the crops you planted. And celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you bring in everything from your fields.
17. 17Three times a year, all your males must appear before the LORD God.
18. 18Don't offer the blood of my sacrifice alongside bread made with yeast. The fat from my festival offering must not be left out overnight until morning.
19. 19Bring the very best of the first fruits from your land to the house of the LORD your God. Don't boil a young goat in its mother's milk.
20. 20I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and bring you to the place I have prepared.
21. 21Pay close attention to him and obey his voice. Do not provoke him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, because my name is in him.
22. 22But if you truly obey his voice and do everything I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an opponent to your opponents.
23. 23My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites — and I will wipe them out.
24. 24Do not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor follow their practices. Instead, completely overthrow them and break their images to pieces.
25. 25Worship the LORD your God, and he will bless your food and your water. I will remove sickness from among you.
26. 26No woman in your land will miscarry or be unable to have children. I will give you a full lifespan.
27. 27I will send my fear ahead of you and destroy all the people you encounter, making all your enemies turn their backs to you.
28. 28I will send hornets ahead of you to drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you arrive.
29. 29But I won't drive them all out in a single year, or the land would become deserted and wild animals would overrun it.
30. 30Little by little I will push them out ahead of you, until your population has grown large enough to take possession of the land.
31. 31I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will hand the people living in the land over to you, and you will drive them out.
32. 32Don't make any covenant with them or with their gods.
33. 33They must not live in your land, or they will lead you to sin against me. If you worship their gods, it will surely be a trap for you.