Justice and Mercy 1 UDB "Do not lie about other people. Do not help someone who is guilty by lying about what happened. BSB BSB: “You shall not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked by being a malicious witness.
2 UDB Do not join with a group of people who are planning do something evil. Do not tell the same lies they do and so keep the judge from deciding the case justly. BSB BSB: You shall not follow the crowd in wrongdoing. When you testify in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd.
3 UDB When a poor person is on trial, do not testify in his favor just because he is poor and you feel sorry for him. BSB BSB: And do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit.
4 UDB If you see someone's bull or donkey when it is wandering away loose, take it back to its owner even if the owner is your enemy. BSB BSB: If you encounter your enemy’s stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him.
5 UDB If you see someone's donkey that has fallen down because of its heavy load, help the owner to get the donkey up again even if he is someone who hates you. Do not just walk away without helping him. BSB BSB: If you see the donkey of one who hates you fallen under its load, do not leave it there; you must help him with it.
6 UDB Decide the cases of poor people who are on trial as fairly as you judge the cases of other people. BSB BSB: You shall not deny justice to the poor in their lawsuits.
7 UDB Do not accuse people falsely. Do not decide that innocent and righteous people should be killed, because I will punish people who do such an evil thing. BSB BSB: Stay far away from a false accusation. Do not kill the innocent or the just, for I will not acquit the guilty.
8 UDB Do not accept money that is a bribe, because officials who accept bribes are not able to decide what is right to do, and they do not allow innocent people to be treated fairly. BSB BSB: Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the righteous.
9 UDB Do not mistreat foreigners who live among you. You know how foreigners often feel because the Egyptians did not treat you well when you were foreigners there. BSB BSB: Do not oppress a foreign resident, since you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
Sabbath Laws (Leviticus 25:1–7; Deuteronomy 15:1–6)
10 UDB For six years, plant seeds in your ground and gather the harvest. BSB BSB: For six years you are to sow your land and gather its produce,
11 UDB But on the seventh year you must not plant anything. If things grow without your planting seeds, allow the poor people to harvest and eat the crops. If there are still crops left over, allow the wild animals to eat them. Do the same thing with your grapevine and your olive trees. BSB BSB: but in the seventh year you must let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor among your people may eat from the field and the wild animals may consume what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and olive grove.
12 UDB You may work for six days each week, but on the seventh day you must rest and not work. Also on the seventh day you must allow your work animals, your slaves, and the foreigners who live among you to rest and to become ready to work again. BSB BSB: For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you must cease, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the son of your maidservant may be refreshed, as well as the foreign resident.
13 UDB Make certain that you obey everything that I have commanded you to do. Do not pray to other gods. Do not even mention their names. BSB BSB: Pay close attention to everything I have said to you. You must not invoke the names of other gods; they must not be heard on your lips.
The Three Feasts of Pilgrimage (Leviticus 23:1–3)
14 UDB Every year you must travel to three festivals to honor me. BSB BSB: Three times a year you are to celebrate a feast to Me.
15 UDB The first one is the Festival of Bread with No Yeast. Celebrate it in the month of Aviv, which is the month in which you left Egypt. Celebrate it in the way that I commanded you; eat the bread for seven days. Always bring an offering when you come to worship me. Do not come empty-handed. BSB BSB: You are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread as I commanded you: At the appointed time in the month of Abib you are to eat unleavened bread for seven days, because that was the month you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before Me empty-handed.
17 UDB Every year, at each of these times, all the men must gather together to worship me, Yahweh God. BSB BSB: Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord GOD.
18 UDB When you sacrifice an animal and offer it to me, you must not offer bread that has been baked with yeast. When you offer sacrifices, burn the fat from the animals on that same day so that no fat remains the next morning. BSB BSB: You must not offer the blood of My sacrifices with anything leavened, nor may the fat of My feast remain until morning.
19 UDB Each year, when you harvest your crops, take the best of what you harvest first, go to the place where you worship me, and give it to me, Yahweh God. When you kill a young animal, do not cook it by boiling it in its mother's milk." BSB BSB: Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
God’s Angel to Lead (Deuteronomy 7:12–26)
20 UDB "I am going to send an angel ahead of you to guard you as you travel and to bring you safely to the place that I have prepared for you. BSB BSB: Behold, I am sending an angel before you to protect you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.
21 UDB Pay attention to what he says and obey him. Do not rebel against him, because he will have my authority and he will punish you if you rebel against him. BSB BSB: Pay attention to him and listen to his voice; do not defy him, for he will not forgive rebellion, since My Name is in him.
22 UDB But if you pay attention to what he says and if you do all that I tell you to do, I will fight against all of your enemies. BSB BSB: But if you will listen carefully to his voice and do everything I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.
23 UDB My angel will go ahead of you and will take you to where the Amor, Heth, Periz, Canaan, Hiv, and Jebus peoples live, and I will completely get rid of them. BSB BSB: For My angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will annihilate them.
24 UDB Do not bow down before their gods or worship them. Do not do the things that they think that their gods want them to do. Destroy their gods and smash to pieces their sacred stones. BSB BSB: You must not bow down to their gods or serve them or follow their practices. Instead, you are to demolish them and smash their sacred stones to pieces.
25 UDB You must worship me, Yahweh your God. If you do that, I will bless your food and water, and I will protect you from becoming sick. BSB BSB: So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take away sickness from among you.
26 UDB No women in your land will have miscarriages, and no women will be unable to become pregnant. I will enable you to live a long time. BSB BSB: No woman in your land will miscarry or be barren; I will fulfill the number of your days.
27 UDB I will cause the people who oppose you to become very afraid of me. I will kill all of the people that you come close to. Then I will cause them to turn around and run away from you. BSB BSB: I will send My terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn and run.
28 UDB I will cause your enemies to become terrified. I will expel the Hiv, Canaan, and Heth peoples from your land. BSB BSB: I will send the hornet before you to drive the Hivites and Canaanites and Hittites out of your way.
29 UDB I will not remove all of them in less than one year. If I did that, your land would become deserted, and there would be very many wild animals that would attack you. BSB BSB: I will not drive them out before you in a single year; otherwise the land would become desolate and wild animals would multiply against you.
30 UDB I will remove those peoples slowly, a few at a time, until the number of your people increases and you are able to live everywhere in the land. BSB BSB: Little by little I will drive them out ahead of you, until you become fruitful and possess the land.
31 UDB I will cause the borders of your land to extend from the Sea of Reeds in the southeast to the Mediterranean Sea in the northwest, and from the wilderness of Sinai in the southwest to the Euphrates River in the northeast of the country. I will give you the power to remove the people who live there so that you will remove them as you occupy more of the country. BSB BSB: And I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the Euphrates. For I will deliver the inhabitants into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.
32 UDB You must not make any agreement with those people or with their gods. BSB BSB: You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods.
33 UDB Do not allow those people to live in your land, so that they do not cause you to sin against me. If you worship their gods, you will not be able to escape from worshiping them and sinning against me just as someone caught in a trap is unable to escape." BSB BSB: They must not remain in your land, lest they cause you to sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”