Ethical and Religious Laws

Chapter 22

¹⁷You shall not tolerate^a a sorceress.

¹⁸Whoever lies with a beast shall be put to death.

¹⁹Whoever sacrifices to a god other than the Lord alone shall be proscribed.

²⁰You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

²¹You shall not ill-treat any widow or orphan. [ . . . ]

²⁴If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, do not act toward them as a creditor; exact no interest from them. ²⁵If you take your neighbor’s garment in pledge, you must return it to him before the sun sets; ²⁶it is his only clothing, the sole covering for his skin. In what else shall he sleep? [ . . . ]

²⁷You shall not revile God, nor put a curse upon a chieftain among your people. [ . . . ]

³⁰You shall be holy people to Me: you must not eat flesh torn by beasts in the field; you shall cast it to the dogs.

Chapter 23

¹You must not carry false rumors; you shall not join hands with the guilty to act as a malicious witness: ²You shall neither side with the mighty to do wrong—you shall not give perverse testimony in a dispute so as to pervert it in favor of the mighty—³nor shall you show deference to a poor man in his dispute.

⁴When you encounter your enemy’s ox or ass wandering, you must take it back to him.

⁵When you see the ass of your enemy lying under its burden and would refrain from raising it, you must nevertheless raise it with him.

⁶You shall not subvert the rights of your needy in their disputes. ⁷Keep far from a false charge; do not bring death on those who are innocent and in the right, for I will not acquit the wrongdoer. ⁸Do not take bribes, for bribes blind the clear-sighted and upset the pleas of those who are in the right.

⁹You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt.

¹⁰Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield; ¹¹but in the seventh you shall let it rest and lie fallow. Let the needy among your people eat of it, and what they leave let the wild beasts eat. You shall do the same with your vineyards and your olive groves.

¹²Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor, in order that your ox and your ass may rest, and that your bondman and the stranger may be refreshed. [ . . . ]

¹⁴Three times a year you shall hold a festival for Me: ¹⁵You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread—eating unleavened bread for seven days as I have commanded you—at the set time in the month of Abib, for in it you went forth from Egypt; and none shall appear before Me empty-handed; ¹⁶and the Feast of the Harvest, of the first fruits of your work, of what you sow in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in the results of your work from the field. ¹⁷Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Sovereign, the Lord. [ . . . ]

¹⁹The choice first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God.

You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.