Catholic Public Domain Version

Exodus 23:5-17 Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV)

5. If you see the donkey of one who hates you, fallen under its burden, you shall not pass by without lifting it up with him.

6. You shall not deviate in judgment of the poor.

7. You shall flee from lies. The innocent and the just you shall not kill. For I shun the impious.

8. Neither shall you accept bribes, which blind even the prudent and subvert the words of the just.

9. You shall not harass a sojourner, for you know the life of a newcomer. For you yourselves also were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

10. For six years, you shall sow your land and gather its produce.

11. But in the seventh year, you shall release it and cause it to rest, so that the poor of your people may eat. And whatever remains, let the beasts of the field eat it. So shall you do with your vineyard and your olive grove.

12. For six days, you shall work. On the seventh day, you shall cease, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the newcomer and the son of your handmaid may be refreshed.

13. Preserve all that I have said to you. And by the names of foreign gods you shall not swear; neither shall these be heard from your mouth.

14. Three times in each year, you shall celebrate feasts to me.

15. You shall keep the solemnity of unleavened bread. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, just as I instructed you, at the time of the month of new grain, when you departed from Egypt. You shall not appear empty-handed in my sight,

16. for it is the solemnity of the harvest of the first-fruits of your work, of whatever you have sown in the field. Likewise, it is a solemnity at the end of the season, when you will have gathered in all your crops from the field.

17. Three times a year, all your males shall appear before the Lord your God.