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Exodus 23

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Laws of Ethical Justice and Integrity 1–9

1
Thou shalt not take up a false report: put not thy hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. ​
2
Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to turn aside after a multitude to wrest justice: ​
3
neither shalt thou favor a poor man in his cause. ​
4
If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. ​
5
If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, thou shalt forbear to leave him, thou shalt surely release it with him.
6
Thou shalt not wrest the justice due to thy poor in his cause.
7
Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked. ​
8
And thou shalt take no bribe: for a bribe blindeth them that have sight, and perverteth the words of the righteous. ​
9
And a sojourner shalt thou not oppress: for ye know the heart of a sojourner, seeing ye were sojourners in the land of Egypt. ​

Sabbath and Sabbatical Observances 10–13

10
And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the increase thereof:
11
but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie fallow; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beast of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard. ​
12
Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest; that thine ox and thine ass may have rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the sojourner, may be refreshed. ​
13
And in all things that I have said unto you take ye heed: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. ​

The Annual Feasts and Offerings 14–19

14
Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. ​
15
The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep: seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it thou camest out from Egypt); and none shall appear before me empty:
16
and the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labors, which thou sowest in the field: and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when thou gatherest in thy labors out of the field. ​
17
Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord Jehovah.
18
Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my feast remain all night until the morning. ​
19
The first of the first-fruits of thy ground thou shalt bring into the house of Jehovah thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother’s milk. ​

Promises and Warnings for the Conquest 20–33

20
Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee by the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. ​
21
Take ye heed before him, and hearken unto his voice; provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgression: for my name is in him. ​
22
But if thou shalt indeed hearken unto his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.
23
For mine angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: and I will cut them off.
24
Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works; but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and break in pieces their pillars. ​
25
And ye shall serve Jehovah your God, and he will bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. ​
26
There shall none cast her young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.
27
I will send my terror before thee, and will discomfit all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.
28
And I will send the hornet before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. ​
29
I will not drive them out from before thee in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the beasts of the field multiply against thee. ​
30
By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.
31
And I will set thy border from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness unto the River: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand: and thou shalt drive them out before thee. ​
32
Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
33
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. ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Exodus 23

Verse 1

a false report — 'Report' is shema, what is heard, and 'false' is shav, empty or worthless; to 'raise' it (nasa, to lift) is to carry a rumour on. 'Unrighteous witness' is literally a witness of violence (chamas). The verse applies 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour' (Ex 20:16); Ps 101:5 gives David's resolve against a slanderer: 'him will I cut off'.

Verse 2

follow a multitude to do evil — 'Decline' and 'wrest' are one verb, natah, to turn aside, which opens v.6 as well: a witness who bends toward the many bends the judgment with him. The warning is tested within weeks, when 'the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods' (Ex 32:1).

Verse 3

countenance a poor man — 'Countenance' is hadar, to honour or favour, the verb of Lev 19:32, 'honour the face of the old man'. Lev 19:15 holds both sides: 'thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty'. Verse 6 guards the poor from the other side: 'Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause.'

Verse 4

thine enemy's ox — The duty reaches the man who is an enemy; Deut 22:1 states it for 'thy brother'. 'Bring it back' is shub, to return, stressed by repetition in the Hebrew. The same spirit runs through 'If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat' (Prov 25:21), which Paul quotes in Rom 12:20.

Verse 7

I will not justify the wicked — 'Justify' (tsadaq) and 'righteous' (tsaddiq) share one root: the LORD will not declare right the one who has done wrong, and the court must not slay 'the innocent and righteous'. Prov 17:15 puts the two together: 'He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.'

Verse 8

the gift blindeth the wise — 'Gift' is shochad, a bribe; 'blindeth' (avar) takes the sight of 'the wise' (piqqeach, clear-sighted). Deut 16:19 repeats the law almost word for word: 'a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous'. Jethro's judges were to be men 'hating covetousness' (Ex 18:21).

Verse 9

the heart of a stranger — 'Heart' is nephesh, the soul or inner life: Israel knows from Egypt what a stranger feels. The command repeats Ex 22:21, here placed among the laws on judging. Deut 27:19 says, 'Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger', and Deut 10:19, 'Love ye therefore the stranger'.

Verse 11

let it rest and lie still — 'Rest' is shamat, to release or let drop, and 'lie still' is natash, to leave alone. The seventh year is 'a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD' (Lev 25:4), and the poor eat what grows. The seventy years of exile are reckoned in sabbaths: 'until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths' (2 Chr 36:21).

Verse 12

may be refreshed — Naphash, to draw breath, occurs only three times: here, of the LORD on the seventh day, 'he rested, and was refreshed' (Ex 31:17), and of David's company in 2 Sam 16:14. The rest reaches the ox and the ass, 'the son of thy handmaid', and the stranger, as in the fourth commandment (Ex 20:10).

Verse 13

make no mention of the name of other gods — 'Circumspect' is shamar, to guard. Joshua repeats the law: 'neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them' (Josh 23:7). David says, 'nor take up their names into my lips' (Ps 16:4), and the LORD promises, 'I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth' (Hos 2:17).

Verse 14

Three times — Literally 'three feet' (regel), three journeys; 'keep a feast' is chagag, to keep a festival in procession. Deut 16:16 names them: 'Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles'.

Verse 16

the feast of harvest — This is the wheat-harvest feast, 'the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest' (Ex 34:22). Lev 23:16 counts 'fifty days' to it, which is why Acts 2:1 speaks of 'the day of Pentecost'. 'Ingathering' (asif) is the feast of tabernacles, kept 'after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine' (Deut 16:13).

Verse 18

with leavened bread — The blood of the sacrifice is not to be offered with leaven, as the Passover is eaten with 'unleavened bread' (Ex 12:8) and nothing is to 'remain until the morning' (Ex 12:10). 'The fat of my sacrifice' is literally the fat 'of my feast' (chag); of the fat Lev 3:16 says 'all the fat is the LORD'S'.

Verse 19

a kid in his mother's milk — The command stands three times: here, Ex 34:26 after the same line on firstfruits, and Deut 14:21 after 'thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God'. 'Seethe' is bashal, to boil. The first half of the verse sends 'the first of the firstfruits' to 'the house of the LORD thy God'.

Verse 20

I send an Angel before thee — Malak, a messenger. He is to 'keep' (shamar) Israel in the way and bring them to 'the place which I have prepared'. After the calf the LORD says, 'I will send an angel before thee' (Ex 33:2), then, 'My presence shall go with thee' (Ex 33:14). Isa 63:9 recalls 'the angel of his presence'.

Verse 21

my name is in him — 'Pardon' is nasa, to lift away. The words 'my name is in him' mark the messenger as speaking with the LORD's authority, so that to 'obey his voice' is to obey the LORD. Verse 22 says it plainly: 'if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak'.

Verse 24

quite break down their images — 'Images' are matstsebah, standing pillars. 'Overthrow' (haras, to tear down) and 'break' (shabar) are each doubled for force. Deut 7:5 repeats it: 'ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images'. The root is the second commandment: 'Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them' (Ex 20:5).

Verse 25

I will take sickness away — Machalah, sickness, with sur, to turn aside. The promise ties service to bread, water and health. It recalls Ex 15:26, 'I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee', and Deut 7:15.

Verse 28

I will send hornets — Tsirah, the hornet, named only here, in Deut 7:20 and in Josh 24:12, where it is recorded as done: 'I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites'. Three of the peoples are named here; v.23 names six, with the Perizzites, the Amorites and the Jebusites.

Verse 29

not drive them out from before thee in one year — The reason given is 'lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee'. Deut 7:22 repeats it: 'by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once'. After Samaria's people were removed, 'the LORD sent lions among them' (2 Kgs 17:25).

Verse 31

from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines — The bounds are given in four directions: the Red sea, 'the sea of the Philistines', the desert, and 'the river', the Euphrates of Gen 15:18, 'from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates'. Solomon reigned 'from the river unto the land of the Philistines' (1 Kgs 4:21).

Verse 33

a snare unto thee — Moqesh, a noose or trap that springs shut. The danger lies in their gods: 'if thou serve their gods'. Judg 2:3 records the LORD's word fulfilled, 'their gods shall be a snare unto you', and Ps 106:36 the result: 'they served their idols: which were a snare unto them'.