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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><title>Exodus 23 CEV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/exodus/23.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/exodus/23-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">CEV</a> > Exodus 23</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../exodus/22.htm" title="Exodus 22">◄</a> Exodus 23 <a href="../exodus/24.htm" title="Exodus 24">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Contemporary English Version</div><div class="chap"><h3 class="s1">Equal Justice for All</h3><h5 class="sp">The <span class="nd">Lord</span> said:</h5><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_1"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.1" class="v1_23_1">1</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.23.1!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> Don't spread harmful rumors or help a criminal by giving false evidence.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_2"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.2" class="v1_23_2">2</span>Always tell the truth in court, even if everyone else is<a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.23.2!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> dishonest and stands in the way of justice. </span><span class="v1_23_3"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.3" class="v1_23_3">3</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.23.3!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> And don't favor the poor, simply because they are poor.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_4"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.4" class="v1_23_4">4</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.23.4!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> If you find an ox or a donkey that has wandered off, take it back where it belongs, even if the owner is your enemy.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_5"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.5" class="v1_23_5">5</span>If a donkey is overloaded and falls down, you must do what you can to help, even if it belongs to someone who doesn't like you.<a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.23.5!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> </span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_6"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.6" class="v1_23_6">6</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.23.6!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> Make sure that the poor are given equal justice in court. </span><span class="v1_23_7"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.7" class="v1_23_7">7</span>Don't bring false charges against anyone or sentence an innocent person to death. I won't forgive you if you do.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_8"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.8" class="v1_23_8">8</span>Don't accept bribes. Judges are blinded and justice is twisted by bribes.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_9"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.9" class="v1_23_9">9</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.23.9!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> Don't mistreat foreigners. You were foreigners in Egypt, and you know what it is like.</span></p><h3 class="s1">Laws for the Sabbath</h3><h5 class="sp">The <span class="nd">Lord</span> said:</h5><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_10"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.10" class="v1_23_10">10</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.23.10!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> Plant and harvest your crops for six years, </span><span class="v1_23_11"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.11" class="v1_23_11">11</span>but let the land rest during the seventh year. The poor are to eat what they want from your fields, vineyards, and olive trees during that year, and when they have all they want from your fields, leave the rest for wild animals.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_12"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.12" class="v1_23_12">12</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.23.12!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> Work the first six days of the week, but rest and relax on the seventh day. This law is not only for you, but for your oxen, donkeys, and slaves, as well as for any foreigners among you.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_13"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.13" class="v1_23_13">13</span>Make certain that you obey everything I have said. Don't pray to other gods or even mention their names.</span></p><h3 class="s1">Three Annual Festivals</h3><h5 class="r">(<ref loc="EXO 34:18-26">Exodus 34.18-26</ref>; <ref loc="DEU 16:1-17">Deuteronomy 16.1-17</ref>)</h5><h5 class="sp">The <span class="nd">Lord</span> said:</h5><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_14"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.14" class="v1_23_14">14</span>Celebrate three festivals each year in my honor.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_15"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.15" class="v1_23_15">15</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.23.15!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> Celebrate the Festival of Thin Bread by eating bread made without yeast, just as I have commanded.<a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.23.15!f.2" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> Do this at the proper time during the month of Abib,<a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.23.15!f.3" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> because it is the month when you left Egypt. And make certain that everyone brings the proper offerings.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_16"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.16" class="v1_23_16">16</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.23.16!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> Celebrate the Harvest Festival<a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.23.16!f.2" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> each spring when you start harvesting your wheat, and celebrate the Festival of Shelters<a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.23.16!f.3" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> each autumn when you pick your fruit.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_17"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.17" class="v1_23_17">17</span>Your men must come to these three festivals each year to worship me.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_18"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.18" class="v1_23_18">18</span>Do not offer bread made with yeast when you sacrifice an animal to me. And make sure that the fat of the animal is burned that same day.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_19"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.19" class="v1_23_19">19</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.23.19!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> Each year bring the best part of your first harvest to the place of worship.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_19">Don't boil a young goat in its mother's milk.</span></p><h3 class="s1">A Promise and a Warning</h3><h5 class="sp">The <span class="nd">Lord</span> said:</h5><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_20"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.20" class="v1_23_20">20</span>I am sending an angel to protect you and to lead you into the land I have ready for you. </span><span class="v1_23_21"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.21" class="v1_23_21">21</span>Carefully obey everything the angel says, because I am giving him complete authority, and he won't tolerate rebellion. </span><span class="v1_23_22"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.22" class="v1_23_22">22</span>If you faithfully obey him, I will be a fierce enemy of your enemies. </span><span class="v1_23_23"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.23" class="v1_23_23">23</span>My angel will lead you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. </span><span class="v1_23_24"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.24" class="v1_23_24">24</span>Don't worship their gods or follow their customs. Instead, destroy their idols and shatter their stone images.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_25"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.25" class="v1_23_25">25</span>Worship only me, the <span class="nd">Lord</span> your God! I will bless you with plenty of food and water and keep you strong. </span><span class="v1_23_26"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.26" class="v1_23_26">26</span>Your women will give birth to healthy children, and everyone will live a long life.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_27"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.27" class="v1_23_27">27</span>I will terrify those nations and make your enemies so confused that they will run from you. </span><span class="v1_23_28"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.28" class="v1_23_28">28</span>I will make the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites panic as you approach. </span><span class="v1_23_29"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.29" class="v1_23_29">29</span>But I won't do all this in the first year, because the land would become poor, and wild animals would be everywhere. </span><span class="v1_23_30"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.30" class="v1_23_30">30</span>Instead, I will force out your enemies little by little and give your nation time to grow strong enough to take over the land.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_23_31"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.31" class="v1_23_31">31</span>I will see that your borders reach from the Red Sea<a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.23.31!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> to the Euphrates River and from the Mediterranean Sea to the desert. I will let you defeat the people who live there, and you will force them out of the land. </span><span class="v1_23_32"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.32" class="v1_23_32">32</span>But you must not make any agreements with them or with their gods. </span><span class="v1_23_33"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.23.33" class="v1_23_33">33</span>Don't let them stay in your land. They will trap you into sinning against me and worshiping their gods.</span></p></div> </div> <a name="fn"></a><br /><br /><br /><b>Footnotes:<br /><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">23.2 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">everyone else is: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Or “the authorities are.”</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">23.5 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">you: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 5.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">23.15 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">as I have commanded: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">See 12.14-20.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">23.15 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Abib: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">See the note at 12.2.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">23.16 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Harvest Festival: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Traditionally called the “Festival of Weeks” and known in New Testament times as “Pentecost.”</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">23.16 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Festival of Shelters: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">The Hebrew text has “Festival of Ingathering” (so also in 34.22), which was the final harvesting of crops and fruits before the autumn rains began. But the usual name was “Festival of Shelters.”</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">23.31 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Red Sea: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Hebrew <char style="tl">yam suph</char>, here referring to the Gulf of Aqaba, since the term is extended to include the northeastern arm of the Red Sea (see also the note at 13.18).</char></note></div></div><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div align="center"><p><span style="font-size:11pt;">Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt;">© 2006 American Bible Society. 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