- Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
Do not spread fake or made up reports. Don’t join wicked people by being an unrighteous witness.
- Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil ; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment :
Don’t follow a crowd and commit evil. If you are to testify in a case, don’t follow the crowd and try to prevent justice.
- neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause.
That doesn’t mean you should side with a poor man because he is poor. Justice should prevail regardless.
- If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.
If you find your enemy’s ox or donkey going astray, go, take it, and bring it back to him.
- If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.
If you see the donkey of someone that hates you, lying down with a burden preventing It from rising, will you now leave it there? Stop whatever you’re doing and go and help him.
- Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause.
Don’t deny justice to the poor.
- Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not : for I will not justify the wicked.
Don’t have anything to do with any false accusation and don’t put an innocent or honest man to death. It will not make me look at the guilty as innocent or free.
- And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.
Don’t take gifts (bribe), because they will unconsciously affect your decision and make you bias. And it makes the righteous one deviate from saying what he is to say.
- Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Don’t oppress a stranger, you know what it is like to be a stranger since you were strangers in Egypt.
- And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof :
For 6 years, on land, you should sow/plant and reap/harvest
- but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still ; that the poor of thy people may eat : and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard.
But for the 7th year. Let the land lie fallow. So that the poor may eat (hungry people who wander about will eat of whatever they see growing there) you won’t do any work or weeding on the land during this period. And what is left of it will be eaten by field animals. The same applies to your vineyard and olive yard.
- Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.
You are to work for 6days but you will rest on the 7th, during the 7th day, your animals will rest as well and not do field work. Your maids as well will rest and recover.
- And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.
Be careful and make sure you do all the things I’m telling you. Do not mention the names of other gods…don’t let them be heard in your mouth at all.
- Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Three times in a year you will feast unto me.
- Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib ; for in it thou camest out from Egypt : and none shall appear before me empty 🙂
- and the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labors, which thou hast sown in the field : and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field.
The first is the feast of unleavened bread…. Of which you are to eat un-yeasted-bread for 7days…in the first month of the year, because that was when you came out of Egypt and no one is to appear before me, empty.
The second is the feast of harvest….of which you are to give me your first fruits,
The third is the feast of ingathering…where you go and gather your crops from the field.
- Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord God.
Three times in a year, all males are to come before the Lord.
- Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.
Don’t offer the blood of a sacrifice to me with yeasted bread.
The fat of my sacrifice should not be left till the next morning.
- The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.
You will bring the first fruits of the land to the house of the Lord.
Do not boil a seed in its mother’s milk (in its most literal sense. Some say it is an act of idol worship as well)
- Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
I am sending an angel before you, to keep you in the way, and to bring you to the place I have prepared.
- Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.
Beware of him (the Angel), obey his voice and don’t get him angry, he will not pardon your sins, because my name is in him. He is acting on my authority.
- But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.
BUT IF YOU OBEY HIM AND LISTEN TO ALL HE TELLS YOU, AND DO ALL THAT I SAY, I WILL BE AN ENEMY TO YOUR ENEMIES, AND ANYBODY WHO MAKES YOU TO SUFFER WILL SUFFER BY MY HAND.
- For mine angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites ; and I will cut them off.
My angel will bring you to the lands mentioned and I will cut the inhabitants off.
- Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.
Don’t bow down to other gods or serve them. Don’t do what they do. Instead, overthrow them and destroy their representations.
- And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.
And you will serve the Lord your God and He will bless your bread and water (not give you, but bless that which you have made available) and I will take sickness away from amidst you.
- There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.
There will be no miscarriages and no one will be barren in yet the land. I …not you…I will fulfil the number of your days.
- I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come; and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.
The fear of Me will go before you and destroy all the people you would have met normally and would have confronted you, and your enemies will retreat and not look at you.
- And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.
I will send a hornet before you into the land and it will drive away the Hittites, hivites and the Canaanites.
- I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.
- By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.
I will not send them out all at once, so that animals don’t reproduce and before you get there, animals dominate the place. But I will send them out little by little, until you increase and inherit the land.
- And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.
Your boundary would be from be Red Sea even to the sea of the philistines and then from the desert unto the river, and I will deliver those living in the land to you. And you yourself will drive them out.
- Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
You are not to make any covenant with them or with their gods.
- They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.
They cannot stay in the land with you. They will make you sin. Bad company corrupts good manners. And if you serve their gods, it becomes a trap to you.