Moral and Religious Laws
1 The Lord told Moses 2 to say to the community of Israel:
I am the Lord your God. I am holy, and you must be holy too! 3-4 Respect your father and your mother, honor the Sabbath, and don't make idols or images. I am the Lord your God.
5 When you offer a sacrifice to ask my blessing, be sure to follow my instructions. 6 You may eat the meat either on the day of the sacrifice or on the next day, but you must burn anything left over on the third day. 7 If you eat any of it on the third day, the sacrifice will be disgusting to me, and I will reject it. 8 In fact, you will be punished for not respecting what I say is holy, and you will no longer belong to the community of Israel.
9 When you harvest your grain, always leave some of it standing along the edges of your fields and don't pick up what falls on the ground. 10 Don't strip your grapevines clean or gather the grapes that fall off the vines. Leave them for the poor and for those foreigners who live among you. I am the Lord your God.
11 Do not steal or tell lies or cheat others.
12 Do not misuse my name by making promises you don't intend to keep. I am the Lord your God.
13 Do not steal anything or cheat anyone, and don't fail to pay your workers at the end of each day.
14 I am the Lord your God, and I command you not to make fun of the deaf or to cause a blind person to stumble.
15 Be fair, no matter who is on trial—don't favor either the poor or the rich.
16 Don't be a gossip, but never hesitate to speak up in court, especially if your testimony can save someone's life.
17 Don't hold grudges. On the other hand, it's wrong not to correct someone who needs correcting. 18 Don't be angry or try to take revenge. I am the Lord, and I command you to love others as much as you love yourself.
19 Breed your livestock animals only with animals of the same kind, and don't plant two kinds of seed in the same field or wear clothes made of different kinds of material.
20 If a man has sex with a slave woman who is promised in marriage to someone else, he must pay a fine, but they are not to be put to death. After all, she was still a slave at the time. 21-22 The man must bring a ram to the entrance of the sacred tent and give it to a priest, who will then offer it as a sacrifice to me, so the man's sins will be forgiven.
23 After you enter the land, you will plant fruit trees, but you are not to eat any fruit from them for the first three years. 24 In the fourth year the fruit must be set apart, as an expression of thanks 25 to me, the Lord God. Do this, and in the fifth year, those trees will produce an abundant harvest of fruit for you to eat.
26 Don't eat the blood of any animal.
Don't practice any kind of witchcraft.
27-28 I forbid you to shave any part of your head or beard or to cut and tattoo yourself as a way of worshiping the dead.
29 Don't let your daughters serve as temple prostitutes—this would bring disgrace both to them and the land.
30 I command you to respect the Sabbath and the place where I am worshiped.
31 Don't make yourselves disgusting to me by going to people who claim they can talk to the dead.
32 I command you to show respect for older people and to obey me with fear and trembling.
33 Don't mistreat any foreigners who live in your land. 34 Instead, treat them as well as you treat your own people and love them as much as you love yourself. Remember, you were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
35-36 Use honest scales and don't cheat when you weigh or measure anything.
I am the Lord your God. I rescued you from Egypt, 37 and I command you to obey my laws.
1 And the Lord spake vnto Moses, saying, 2 Speake vnto all the Congregation of the children of Israel, and say vnto them, Ye shalbe holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. 3 Yee shall feare euery man his mother and his father, and shall keepe my Sabbaths: for I am the Lord your God. 4 Ye shall not turne vnto idoles, nor make you molten gods: I am the Lord your God. 5 And when yee shall offer a peace offering vnto the Lord, ye shall offer it freely. 6 It shall be eaten the day yee offer it, or on the morowe: and that which remaineth vntill the third day, shalbe burnt in the fire. 7 For if it be eaten the third day, it shall be vncleane, it shall not be accepted. 8 Therefore he that eateth it, shall beare his iniquitie, because he hath defiled the halowed thing of the Lord, and that person shalbe cut off from his people. 9 When yee reape the haruest of your land, ye shall not reape euery corner of your field, neither shalt thou gather the glainings of thy haruest. 10 Thou shalt not gather the grapes of thy vineyarde cleane, neyther gather euery grape of thy vineyarde, but thou shalt leaue them for the poore and for the straunger: I am the Lord your God. 11 Ye shall not steale, neither deale falsely, neither lie one to another. 12 Also yee shall not sweare by my name falsely, neither shalt thou defile the name of thy God: I am the Lord. 13 Thou shalt not do thy neighbour wrong, neither rob him. The workemans hire shall not abide with thee vntil the morning. 14 Thou shalt not curse the deafe, neither put a stumbling blocke before the blinde, but shalt feare thy God: I am the Lord. 15 Ye shall not doe vniustly in iudgement. Thou shalt not fauour the person of the poore, nor honour the person of the mightie, but thou shalt iudge thy neighbour iustly. 16 Thou shalt not walke about with tales among thy people. Thou shalt not stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the Lord. 17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart, but thou shalt plainely rebuke thy neighbour, and suffer him not to sinne. 18 Thou shalt not auenge, nor be mindful of wrong against ye childre of thy people, but shalt loue thy neighbour as thy selfe: I am the Lord. 19 Yee shall keepe mine ordinances. Thou shalt not let thy cattel gender with others of diuers kindes. Thou shalt not sowe thy fielde with mingled seede, neyther shall a garment of diuers thinges, as of linen and wollen come vpon thee. 20 Whosoeuer also lyeth and medleth with a woman that is a bonde mayde, affianced to a husband, and not redeemed, nor freedome giuen her, she shalbe scourged, but they shall not die, because she is not made free. 21 And he shall bring for his trespasse offring vnto the Lord, at the doore of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, a ramme for a trespasse offering. 22 Then the Priest shall make an atonement for him with the ramme of the trespasse offering before the Lord, concerning his sinne which he hath done, and pardon shalbe giuen him for his sinne which he hath committed. 23 Also when ye shall come into the land, and haue planted euery tree for meate, ye shall count the fruite thereof as vncircumcised: three yeere shall it be vncircumcised vnto you, it shall not be eaten: 24 But in the fourth yere all the fruite thereof shalbe holy to the praise of the Lord. 25 And in the fifth yeere shall ye eate of the fruite of it that it may yeelde to you the encrease thereof: I am the Lord your God. 26 Ye shall not eat the flesh with the blood, ye shall not vse witchcraft, nor obserue times. 27 Ye shall not cut rounde the corners of your heades, neither shalt thou marre the tuftes of thy beard. 28 Ye shall not cut your flesh for the dead, nor make any print of a marke vpon you: I am the Lord, 29 Thou shalt not make thy daughter common, to cause her to be a whore, least the lande also fall to whoredome, and the lande bee full of wickednesse. 30 Ye shall keepe my Sabbaths and reuerence my Sanctuarie: I am the Lord. 31 Ye shall not regarde them that worke with spirites, neither soothsayers: ye shall not seeke to them to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God. 32 Thou shalt rise vp before the horehead, and honour the person of the old man, and dread thy God: I am the Lord. 33 And if a stranger soiourne with thee in your lande, ye shall not vexe him. 34 But the stranger that dwelleth with you, shalbe as one of your selues, and thou shalt loue him as thy selfe: for ye were strangers in the lad of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. 35 Ye shall not doe vniustly in iudgement, in line, in weight, or in measure. 36 You shall haue iust ballances, true weightes, a true Ephah, and a true Hin. I am the Lord your God, which haue brought you out of the lande of Egypt. 37 Therefore shall ye obserue all mine ordinances, and all my iudgements, and doe them: I am the Lord.