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Exodus 23

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1 Thou shalt not take·​·up a vain rumor. Put not thy hand with the wicked to be a witness of violence.

2 Thou shalt not follow after many to do evils; and thou shalt not answer upon a dispute to turn·​·aside* after many to cause others to turn·​·aside.

3 And thou shalt not honor a poor man in his plea.

4 When thou shalt come·​·upon thine enemy’s ox, or his donkey, going·​·astray, returning thou shalt return it to him.

5 When thou shalt see the donkey of him who hates thee couching under his burden, and wouldest desist from removing it for him, removing thou shalt remove it with him.

6 Thou shalt not distort the judgment of thy needy in his plea.

7 Keep thee far from a false word; and the innocent and the just, kill thou not; for I will not justify the wicked.

8 And thou shalt not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have their eyes open, and perverts the words of the just.

9 And a sojourner shalt thou not oppress; and you know the soul of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

10 And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather her increase.

11 And in the seventh thou shalt release it*, and shalt abandon it; and the needy of thy people shall eat; and what remains of them the wild·​·animal of the field shall eat. So shalt thou do to thy vineyard, and to thine olive trees.

12 Six days thou shalt do thy deeds, and on the seventh day thou shalt cease; so·​·that thine ox and thine ass may rest; and the son of thy maidservant, and the sojourner, may refresh· their ·soul.

13 And all that I have said to you, you shall keep; and you shall not make·​·mention of the name of other gods; it shall not be heard upon thy mouth.

14 Three times* thou shalt celebrate to Me in the year.

15 The festival of unleavened things shalt thou keep; seven days thou shalt eat unleavened things, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou wentest·​·out from Egypt; and My faces shall not be seen empty.

16 And the festival of the harvest, of the firstfruits of thy works, which thou sowedst in the field; and the festival of ingathering, in the going·​·out of the year, when thou gatherest in thy works from the field.

17 Three times in the year shall every male of thine be seen before the faces of the Lord Jehovah.

18 Thou shalt not sacrifice the blood of My sacrifice on what is leavened; and the fat of My festival shall not pass·​·the·​·night until the morning.

19 The first of the firstfruits of thy ground thou shalt bring·​·into the house of Jehovah thy God. Thou shalt not cook a kid in the milk of its mother.

20 Behold I send an angel before thee, to guard thee in the way, and to bring thee to the place which I have prepared.

21 Take·​·heed of his face, and obey his voice, lest thou make· him ·bitter; for he will not bear your transgression; for My name is in his midst.

22 For if hearing thou shalt hear his voice, and do all that I speak, I will be·​·an·​·enemy against thine enemies, and I will be·​·an·​·adversary against thine adversaries.

23 When My angel shall go before thee, and shall bring thee to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I shall cut· him ·off.

24 Thou shalt not bow·​·down thyself to their gods, and shalt not serve them, and shalt not do according·​·to their deeds; for breaking·​·down thou shalt break· them ·down, and breaking thou shalt break their statues.

25 And you shall serve Jehovah your God, and He shall bless thy bread, and thy waters; and I will remove sickness from among thee.

26 There shall not be one miscarrying, or barren, in thy land; the number of thy days I will·​·fulfill.

27 I will send My terror before thee, and I will rout all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will give to thee the neck of all thine enemies.

28 And I will send the hornet before thee, and it shall drive·​·out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

29 I will not drive· him ·out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the wild·​·animal of the field become many against thee.

30 By a·​·little and a·​·little I will drive· him ·out from before thee, until thou be·​·fruitful, and inherit the land.

31 And I will put thy border from the Suph sea*, and even·​·to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness even·​·to the river; for I will give into your hand those who dwell·​·in the land; and I will drive· them ·out from before thee.

32 Thou shalt not cut a covenant with them, and with their gods.

33 They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against Me, that thou serve their gods; for it will be for a snare to thee.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Earth

  
by Brita Conroy

Earth" is a general word that can be thought of as a container for other more specific words, as ground, field, or garden. Each of these means a person in an ascending series as that person learns truths from the Bible, thinks about them, and tries to apply them to life. The series represents the way of becoming good and wise. "Earth" and "ground" are terms that can go either way, as in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:4-8) there was both good ground and bad ground, but "field" and "garden" mean minds that are regenerating towards good. "Earth" in the Bible can mean a person or a group of like-minded people as in a church. But it refers specifically to the external of the person's mind, or of the general thought of the group. If heaven and earth are mentioned together, then both the internals and externals of the mind are meant – something to note when reading the creation story.

In Revelation the word "earth" is used both as a ground level as we use it in its natural sense and also as the sense of a group. The action in this book takes place in the great middle zone of the spiritual world, where people first go and where they are sorted out. There are both evil people and good there, and sometimes at the end of a church the evil can have great influence before a great judgment comes. This level of the spiritual realm is called the "earth" to which the dragon was cast down (Revelation 12:9) and to which the stars fell (Revelation 12:4). The "earth" that swallowed the dragon’s flood means those still-sincere people within the church who discounted the flood of the dragon's falsities (Revelation 12:15).