nor companions nor partakers with thieves: there shall not be seen in the congregations of Israel a thievish people; that your sons may not arise after you to teach one another to have part with thieves: for on account of the guilt of theft famine cometh forth upon the world.

Sons of Israel My people, Ye shall not testify against your neighbours a testimony of falsehood, nor be companions or partakers with those who bear false witness: nor shall there be seen in the congregations of Israel a people who testify a testimony of falsehood; neither shall your sons arise after you to teach one another to have part with those who testify falsehood: for because of the guilt of false testimony the clouds go up and the rain cometh not down, and dryness cometh upon the world.

Sons of Israel My people, Ye shall not be covetous, nor companions or partakers with the covetous: nor shall there be seen in the congregations of Israel a covetous people; that your sons may not arise after you to teach one another to have part with the covetous: neither shall any among you covet the wife of his neighbour, nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that belongeth to his neighbour : because through the guilt of covetousness the government breaketh in upon the possessions of men to take them, and the wealthy are made poor, and slavery cometh upon the world.

And all the people saw the thunders, and were turned back, every one as he heard them coming forth from the midst of the lights, and the voice of the trumpet as it will raise the dead, and the mountain smoking; and all the people saw and drew back, and stood twelve miles off. And they said to Mosheh, Speak thou with us, and we can hear; but let it not be spoken with us any

more from before the Lord, lest we die. [Jerusalem. And all the people saw the thunders and the lights, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and the people saw and trembled, and stood afar off.]

And Mosheh said to the people, Fear not; for the glory of the Lord is revealed to try you, whether His fear is before your faces, that ye may not sin. And the people stood twelve miles off; but Mosheh drew near to the height of the darkness where was the glory of the Lord. And the Lord said to Mosheh, Speak thus to the sons of Israel: You have seen that from the heavens I have spoken with you; sons of Israel, My people, you shall not make, that you may worship, the likeness of the sun, or the moon, or the stars, or the planets, or the angels who minister before Me; idols of silver, nor idols of gold, ye shall not make to you. An altar of earth ye shall make to My Name, and sacrifice upon it thy burnt offerings and thy sanctified oblations from thy sheep and from thy oxen. And in every place where My Shekinah shall dwell, and thou worship before Me, there will I send My blessing upon thee, and will bless thee. But if thou wilt make an altar of stones unto My Name, thou shalt not build them sculptured; for if thou lift up iron, from which the sword is made, upon the stone, thou wilt profane it. And you, the priests, who stand to minister before Me, shall not ascend to My altar by steps, but by (sloping) bridges; that thy shame may not be seen thereupon. [Jerusalem. An altar grounded in the earth shalt thou make unto My name, and shalt offer upon it your burnt offerings and sacred oblations, your sheep and your oxen. In every place in which ye shall memorialize My holy Name, My Word shall be revealed to you, and bless you. But if you make an altar of stones unto My Name, you shall not build it with sculptured ones, because the sword is made of iron. If

thou workest with iron upon it, thou wilt profane it. You also, the priests, the sons of Aharon, who stand and minister beside Mine altar, shall not ascend by steps unto Mine altar, lest your shame be disclosed upon it.]

SECTION XVIII.

MISHPATIM.

XXI. And these are the orders of judgments which thou shalt order before them. If thou shalt have bought a son of Israel, on account of his theft, six years he shall serve, and at the incoming of the seventh he shall go out free without price. If he came in alone, he shall go out alone: but if (he be) the husband of a wife, a daughter of Israel, his wife shall go out with. him. If his master give him a wife, an handmaid, and she bear him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to his master, and he may go out alone. But if the servant shall affirm and say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, (and) I will not go out free, then his master shall bring him before the judges, and shall receive from them the power, and bring him to the door that hath posts; and his master shall pierce his right ear with an awl; and he shall be a servant to serve him until the jubela. And if a man of Israel sell his daughter, a little handmaid, she shall not go forth according to the going forth of the servants of the Kenaanaee, who are set at liberty on account of the tooth or the eye; but in the years of remission, and with tokens, and at the jubela, and on the death of her master, and by redemption with money.

If she hath not found favour before her master who bought her, then her father may redeem her; but to a foreigner he shall not have power to sell her; for as a vessel of her Lord he hath power over her. And if he had intended her for the side of his son, he shall do by her after the manner of the daughters of Israel. If he take another daughter of Israel to him beside her, her food, her adorning, and her conjugal rights, he shall not withhold from her. [Jerusalem. And if he take another wife beside her, of her food, her adorning, and her going in and coming out with him, he shall not deprive her.] And if these three things he doth not for her, to covenant her to himself, or to his son, or to release her into the hand of her father, she shall go free without payment, and a writing of release he shall give her.

Whosoever smiteth a son or a daughter of Israel, so as to cause death, shall be put to death with the sword. But he who did not attack him, but mischance from before the Lord befell him at his hand, I will appoint thee a place where he may flee. But if a man come maliciously upon his neighbour to kill him with craft, -though the priests are ministering at My altar, thence thou shalt take him, and slay him with the sword. [Jerusalem. But if a man deviseth against his neighbour to kill him by guile,—though the high priest were standing to minister before Me, from thence thou shalt bring him, and put him to death.] And he who

8

woundeth his father or his mother shall die by strangling. And he who stealeth a soul of the children of Israel, and selleth him, or if he be found in his possession, shall die by strangling. And he who curseth his father or his mother by the Great Name,'

8 Lit., "by suffocation with the towel."

"Or, "by the Name of Mauifestation;" the Shem Hamephorash.

dying he shall die by being stoned with stones. And when men strive together, and one smite his neighbour with a stone, or with his fist, so that he die not, but fall ill, if he rise again from his illness, and walk in the street upon his staff, he who smote him shall be acquitted from the penalty of death; only for his cessation from labour, his affliction, his injury, his disgrace, and the hire of the physician, he shall make good until he be cured. And when a man hath smitten his Kenaanite man-servant or maid-servant with a staff, and he die the same day under his hand, he shall be judged with the judgment of death by the sword. But if the wounded person continue one or two days from time to time, he shall not be (so) judged; because with money he had bought him. If men when striving strike a woman with child, and cause her to miscarry, but not to lose her life, the fine on account of the infant which the husband of the woman shall lay upon him, he shall pay according to the sentence of the judges. But if death befall her, then thou shalt judge the life of the killer for the life of the woman. The value of an eye for an eye, the value of a tooth for a tooth, the value of a hand for a hand, the value of a foot for a foot, an equivalent of the pain of burning for burning, and of wounding for wounding, and of blow for blow. And when a man strikes the eye of his Kenaanite servant or handmaid, and causeth blindness, he shall let him go free, on account of the eye. And if he strike out the tooth of his Kenaanite man or maid-servant, he shall make the servant free on account of the tooth.

And if an ox goreth a man or woman to cause death, the ox must be stoned, but shall not be killed that his flesh may be eaten; and the owner of the ox shall be exempt from the condemnation of death, and also from the price of the servant or handmaid. But if the ox