Study Desk

Laws of Justice and Mercy

"Do not spread false reports.^(a) Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness.^(b)

"Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice^(c) by siding with the crowd,^(d)

and do not show favoritism^(e) to a poor person in a lawsuit.

"If you come across your enemy's^(f) ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to return it.^(g)

If you see the donkey^(h) of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help them with it.

"Do not deny justice⁽ⁱ⁾ to your poor people in their lawsuits.

Have nothing to do with a false charge^(j) and do not put an innocent^(k) or honest person to death,^(l) for I will not acquit the guilty.^(m)

"Do not accept a bribe,⁽ⁿ⁾ for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the innocent.

"Do not oppress a foreigner;^(o) you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.

"For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops,

but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused.^(p) Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

"Six days do your work,^(q) but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed.^(r)

"Be careful^(s) to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods;^(t) do not let them be heard on your lips.^(u)

"Three times^(v) a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.

"Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread;^(w) for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv,^(x) for in that month you came out of Egypt. "No one is to appear before me empty-handed.^(y)

"Celebrate the Festival of Harvest^(z) with the firstfruits^(aa) of the crops you sow in your field. "Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering^(ab) at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.^(ac)

"Three times^(ad) a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord .

"Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast.^(ae) "The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning.^(af)

"Bring the best of the firstfruits^(ag) of your soil to the house of the Lord your God. "Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.^(ah)

"See, I am sending an angel^(ai) ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.^(aj)

Pay attention to him and listen^(ak) to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive^(al) your rebellion,^(am) since my Name^(an) is in him.

If you listen carefully to what he says and do^(ao) all that I say, I will be an enemy^(ap) to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you.

My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites,^(aq) and I will wipe them out.

Do not bow down before their gods or worship^(ar) them or follow their practices.^(as) You must demolish^(at) them and break their sacred stones^(au) to pieces.

Worship the Lord your God,^(av) and his blessing^(aw) will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness^(ax) from among you,

and none will miscarry or be barren^(ay) in your land. I will give you a full life span.^(az)

"I will send my terror^(ba) ahead of you and throw into confusion^(bb) every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run.^(bc)

I will send the hornet^(bd) ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites^(be) out of your way.

But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals^(bf) too numerous for you.

Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession^(bg) of the land.

"I will establish your borders from the Red Sea^[a] to the Mediterranean Sea,^[b] and from the desert to the Euphrates River.^(bh) I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out^(bi) before you.

Do not make a covenant^(bj) with them or with their gods.

Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare^(bk) to you."

The Covenant Confirmed

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Come up to the Lord , you and Aaron,^(a) Nadab and Abihu,^(b) and seventy of the elders^(c) of Israel. You are to worship at a distance,

but Moses alone is to approach^(d) the Lord ; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him."

When Moses went and told the people all the Lord 's words and laws,^(e) they responded with one voice, "Everything the Lord has said we will do."^(f)

Moses then wrote^(g) down everything the Lord had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar^(h) at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars⁽ⁱ⁾ representing the twelve tribes of Israel.

Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings^(j) and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings^(k) to the Lord .

Moses^(l) took half of the blood^(m) and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed⁽ⁿ⁾ against the altar.

Then he took the Book of the Covenant^(o) and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey."^(p)

Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people^(q) and said, "This is the blood of the covenant^(r) that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words."

Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders^(s) of Israel went up

and saw^(t) the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli,^(u) as bright blue as the sky.^(v)

But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw^(w) God, and they ate and drank.^(x)

The Lord said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone^(y) with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction."

Then Moses set out with Joshua^(z) his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain^(aa) of God.

He said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur^(ab) are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute^(ac) can go to them."

When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud^(ad) covered it,

and the glory^(ae) of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai.^(af) For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud.^(ag)

To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire^(ah) on top of the mountain.

Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty^(ai) days and forty nights.^(aj)