Knox Bible

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The Lord, too, spoke to Moses,

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bidding him give the whole company of Israel this message: You must be men set apart, as I am set apart, I, the Lord your God.

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Worshippers of such a God, you must reverence father and mother, and keep my day of rest;

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worshippers of such a God, you must not betake yourselves to idols, make molten images at your pleasure.

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If you immolate a victim by way of welcome-offering, to win the Lord’s favour,

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eat it on the day of its immolation, or the day after; whatever remains on the third day must be destroyed by fire.

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The man who eats of it when two days have passed defiles it and displeases me;

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he will be held to account for profaning what is consecrated to the Lord; he shall be lost to his people.

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When thou reapest the crops on thy land, do not rase all to the level of the ground,✻ or pick up the scattered ears;

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do not hoard up the clusters or the grapes that have fallen. Leave something for poor men and wanderers to glean; remember what God you worship.

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Do not steal, and lie, and deceive one another.

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Do not violate the honour of thy God by swearing falsely in my name; the Lord’s name.

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Do not wrong thy neighbour or despoil him by violence; do not withhold the wages of thy hired servants till morning comes.

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Do not miscall the deaf, or put a stumbling-block in the blind man’s way; thou hast the vengeance of thy God to fear; the Lord’s vengeance.

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Do not pervert justice by giving false awards, whether by taking a man’s poverty into account,✻ or by flattering the great; give every man his just due.

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Do not whisper calumnies in the public ear, and swear away thy neighbour’s life; the Lord hears thee.

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Do not nurse resentment against thy brother; put thyself in the right by confronting him with his fault.

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Do not seek revenge, or bear a grudge for wrong done to thee by thy fellow-citizens; thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; thy Lord is his.✻

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Keep true to my commandments; do not mate any beast of thine with one of another sort, or sow thy field with a mixed crop, or wear garments woven of two different fabrics.✻

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If a man has commerce with a slave-woman promised in marriage, but not yet redeemed or set free, both shall be beaten, but they shall not be put to death, as if she were a free woman.

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The man must offer a ram to the Lord at the tabernacle door for wrong done,

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and so the priest will make intercession before the Lord for the fault he has committed, and the Lord will be merciful, and pardon his fault.

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When you reach your own country and plant fruit-trees there, you must strip them of the fruit they bear,✻ as something unclean, not for your eating,

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till the fourth year; then you must offer the whole crop to the Lord as an acceptable sacrifice.

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You must not gather the fruit on them for your own eating till the fifth year; the Lord your God comes first.

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Do not eat anything that has the blood still in it.

Do not consult omens, or pay regard to dreams.

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There must be no tonsuring of heads and mutilating of beards,

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no gashing your bodies when a man dies, no branding them with marks and designs; the Lord forbids it.

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Do not expose any daughter of thine to dishonour; so thou wilt bring dishonour on the whole land, and fill it with lewdness.

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Keep your observance for my sabbaths, your reverence for my sanctuary.

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Do not betake yourselves to sorcerers, or consult wizards, to your defilement; you are the Lord’s worshippers.

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Rise up from thy seat in reverence for grey hairs; honour the aged, as thou dost fear God, the Lord thy God.

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If an alien comes to dwell in your land, and settles down among you, do not treat him disdainfully;

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welcome him as if he were native born, and do him kindness as if he were one of yourselves, remembering that you were aliens once, in the land of Egypt; the Lord your God remembers.

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There must be no tampering with justice, with the rule or the weight or the measure you employ;

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an even scale, a true balance, a full bushel, a full pint-measure; ever just the Lord your God is, that rescued you from Egypt.

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Remember all these laws, all these decrees of mine, and live by them; the Lord’s decrees.