You shall not prevent justice being done to your poor countryman.

Keep aloof from every false matter.

Do not condemn the innocent to death nor him who

has a just cause.

Do not vindicate the wicked.

Take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of those who see and prevents justice being done.

DEUTERONOMY

151. THE DUTY OF LOVE AND LOYALTY TO GOD

Hear O Israel: Jehovah our God is the one Lord. You shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Behold, the heavens, the highest heavens, the earth and all that is on it belong to Jehovah your God. Jehovah fixed his love on your forefathers alone, and he chose their descendants after them and you out of all peoples, as is now the case. Therefore open your heart to him and no longer refuse to be guided by him. For Jehovah your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awe-inspiring God, who shows no partiality and takes no bribe, who does justice to the orphan and widow and loves the resident alien and gives him food and clothing. Love Jehovah your God and always keep his precepts, his statutes, his laws, and his commands.

152. PUBLIC WORSHIP TO BE JOYOUS AND SOCIAL

Three times each year all your men shall appear before Jehovah your God in the place which he shall choose, at the feast at which you eat no bread made with yeast, at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of tabernacles. They shall not appear before Jehovah empty-handed; every man shall give as he is able, according as Jehovah your God has blessed you.

Observe the spring festival and celebrate the passover feast in honor of Jehovah your God; for in the

month when the green ears of grain were forming Jehovah your God brought you out from Egypt by night. You shall sacrifice the passover offering in honor of Jehovah your God. For six days you shall eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day there shall be an assembly in honor of Jehovah your God in which you shall do no work.

You shall count seven weeks from the time you put the sickle into the standing grain. Then you shall celebrate the feast of weeks in honor of Jehovah your God, using the voluntary offerings which you bring with you according as Jehovah your God has blessed you. You and your son and your daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levites who live in your city, and the resident aliens, the fatherless, and the widows who live with you shall rejoice before Jehovah in the place with which Jehovah your God shall choose to have his name associated.

After you have gathered in the products of your threshing-floor and winepress, you shall celebrate the feast of tabernacles for seven days. You shall rejoice at that feast, together with your son and your daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levites, the resident aliens, the fatherless, and the widows, who are in your town. You shall celebrate the feast seven days in honor of Jehovah your God in the place which he shall choose, for Jehovah your God will bless you in all your increase and in all the work of your hands, and you' shall be altogether happy.

153. THE DUTY OF PARENTS TO INSTRUCT THEIR

CHILDREN

Fix in your minds these commands which I give you this day. You shall impress them upon your chil

dren, and you shall speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you arise. You shall bind them as a reminder on your hand, and they shall be like frontlets between your eyes, and you shall inscribe them on the posts of your house and on your doors.

When your son asks you in the future, 'What is the meaning of the precepts, the statutes, and the laws which Jehovah our God has commanded you?' you shall say to your son, 'We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt; but Jehovah brought us out of Egypt by his might. He performed before our eyes great miracles and wonders that proved disastrous to Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his household. When Jehovah led us out from there, to bring us into the land which he had sworn that he would give to us, he commanded us to observe all these laws and to serve Jehovah our God, that we might always prosper and that he might preserve our lives as he has to this day. We shall do right if we faithfully carry out this obligation to Jehovah our God, as he has commanded us.'

154. CONSIDERATION FOR THE DEPENDENT

When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, you shall not go into his house to take a pledge from him. You shall stand outside while the man to whom you make the loan brings out the pledge to you.

No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone as a pledge, for in so doing he takes life itself as a pledge.

You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he be of your own race or of the aliens who are living in your land and town. You shall pay him his wages each day before the sun goes

down, for he is poor and sets his heart upon it. Let him not complain against you to Jehovah, and you be found guilty.

You shall not deliver to his master a slave who has fled to you for refuge from his master. He shall make his home among you, in the place which he shall choose in one of your towns, where it pleases him best; you him.

shall not oppress

If one of your own race, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, and serves you six years, in the seventh year you shall set him free. When you set him free, you shall not let him go away empty-handed. You shall furnish him liberally from your flock, your threshing-floor, and your winepress; according as Jehovah your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. And you shall remember that you were once slaves in the land of Egypt and that Jehovah your God freed you. Therefore I command you to do this.

You shall not prevent the resident alien or the fatherless from securing justice, nor take a widow's garment as a pledge; but you shall remember that you were once slaves in Egypt, and that Jehovah your God freed you from there. Therefore I command you to do this.

Jehovah so loves the resident alien that he gives to him food and clothing. Love then the resident alien; for you were once resident aliens in the land of Egypt.

155.

GENEROSITY TO THE POOR AND NEEDY

When you reap your harvest and through oversight have left a sheaf in your field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be left for the resident alien, for the fatherless, and for the widow, that Jehovah your God may bless you in all the work that you undertake.