Knox Bible

1

Never must thou take up a false cry, or join hands with the guilty by giving false witness in their favour.

2

Never must thou follow with the crowd in doing wrong, or be swayed by many voices so as to give false judgement;

3

even pity for the poor must not sway thee when judgement is to be given.✻

4

If thou hast an enemy, and findest his ox or his ass going astray, take it back to him.

5

Here is one that hates thee, and his ass has fallen under its burden; do not pass by, help him to lift it up.

6

Do not give false judgement when the cause of the poor is tried.

7

Keep clear of untruth. Do not bring death on an innocent man that has justice on his side; I give no countenance to the wrong-doer.

8

Beware of accepting bribes; they blind even the prudent, and disturb the judgement even of just men.

9

Do not oppress the alien; you know what it is to be an alien, since you yourselves were exiles in the land of Egypt.

10

For six years together thou mayst sow thy land, and gather the crop from it;

11

in the seventh year leave it alone, to lie fallow, and give thy poorer neighbours food; all that is left, the wild beasts may eat. And thou shalt do the like with thy vineyard and thy oliveyard.

12

For six days together thou shalt do the tasks thou hast to do, and on the seventh leave off working; so shall ox and ass of thine have rest, home-born slave and alien that works for thee revive their spirits.

13

Observe all these commandments of mine, and never take an oath by the names of alien gods, or let such names be heard on your lips.

14

Thrice a year keep holiday in my honour.

15

There is the feast of unleavened bread to be observed; for seven days, in the first month of spring, the month of thy rescue from Egypt, thou shalt eat unleavened bread in obedience to my command. Then thou shalt present thyself before me with gifts.✻

16

And there is the feast of harvest, when the fields thou hast sown reward thy labour with first-fruits; and another feast at the end of the year, when the last of thy crops has been gathered in.

17

Thrice, then, in the year all thy men folk must present themselves before the Lord thy God.

18

When thou offerest living things in sacrifice to me, the bread that goes with them shall not be leavened, nor shalt thou leave the fat of my victims unconsumed till the morrow.

19

The first-fruits of thy land must be brought to the house of the Lord thy God.

Seething a kid in its dam’s milk is a rite forbidden thee.✻

20

And now I am sending my angel to go before thee and guard thee on thy way, and lead thee to the place I have made ready for thee.

21

Give him good heed, and listen to his bidding; think not to treat him with neglect. He will not overlook thy faults, and in him dwells the power of my name.

22

If thou wilt listen to his warnings, and do all I bid thee, then thy enemies shall find an enemy in me, and those who shew thee no mercy shall find me merciless.

23

So this angel of mine will go on before thee, leading thee on into the land of Amorrhite and Hethite, Pherezite and Chanaanite, Hevite and Jebusite; and all these I will destroy.

24

Do not bow down to their gods and worship them, or follow their customs; sweep them away, and break down their monuments.

25

All your loyalty must be for the Lord your God. So I will enrich thee with the bread and the water thou needest, and keep sickness far away from thy company;

26

there shall be no unfruitfulness in thy land, no barrenness; and I will grant thee a full span of days.

27

I mean to make the fear of me go in front of thee, bringing destruction upon the whole people thou goest to meet; all thy enemies shall turn their backs before thee.

28

I will send in hornets first, to make cowards of Hevite and Chanaanite and Hethite before ever thou goest in.

29

Only I will not drive them out before thee all in one year; that would make a wilderness of the land, and the wild beasts in it would multiply, to thy harm.

30

I will make them yield little by little before thy onset, so that thou wilt have time to increase, and populate the land.

31

The frontiers I give thee are the Red Sea and the sea of the Philistines, the desert and the river Euphrates.✻ All the inhabitants of the land shall be at your mercy, and I will drive them out before you.

32

Thou shalt make no treaty with them, nor with their gods.

33

They must not share thy territory, or they would persuade thee to commit sin against me, by worshipping their gods; no doubt of it, they will ensnare thee.