Exodus 23:1

The passage belongs to the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 20:22–23:33), the collection of laws God gave Moses at Sinai straight after the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). Those laws apply the commandments to daily life, and these verses apply one in particular, the ninth, which forbids bearing false witness against a neighbour (Exodus 20:16). God had just called Israel to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:5–6), and these laws were to mark her out among the nations around her as a people whose courts showed who their God is.

Cases in Israel were heard in public at the city gate, where the elders sat as judges (Deuteronomy 21:19). A verdict rested on what witnesses said, so a person’s name, property and even life depended on the honesty of his neighbours. Any Israelite could be called to speak in a case, and so these laws address the whole people as “thou”, one person at a time. Justice is the foundation of God’s throne (Psalm 89:14), and he tells his people to pursue it (Deuteronomy 16:20).

The first command of verse 1 reaches into ordinary talk. To “raise” a report is nâsâʼ, to lift, carry or bear, so the verse covers the person who starts a false story and the person who carries it further. The report is called shâvᵉʼ, a word for falsehood, guile and emptiness that also means evil in the sense of something destructive. A rumour passed on carelessly falls under this command as surely as a lie invented on purpose, because either one can ruin a neighbour. Leviticus forbids going about among the people spreading slander (Leviticus 19:16), and the same chapter commands love for one’s neighbour (Leviticus 19:18).

The second command moves into court. To “put thine hand with” someone is to join him and act with him, and here the partner is râshâʻ, the wicked or guilty man. An “unrighteous witness” is an ʻêd, a witness or one who gives testimony, marked by châmâç, which means violence, wrong, injustice or cruelty. Testimony of that kind is used to harm the person it accuses. The law lays down a punishment for the malicious witness (Deuteronomy 19:16–19), and Proverbs says that a false witness is sure to be punished (Proverbs 19:5).

Verse 2 names a pressure everyone has felt. The “multitude” is rab, a word meaning many or great, and the evil they do is raʻ, which can mean anything bad and here means moral wrong. Large numbers give wrongdoing an appearance of being right, and God tells each of his people to measure a course by his law, whatever the count of those who follow it. Proverbs gives the same counsel to the young: “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not” (Proverbs 1:10).

The second half of the verse applies the rule to a lawsuit. To “decline” is nâṭâh, to stretch out and so to bend or turn aside, and the picture is of a witness or judge leaning toward the side where most people stand. “To wrest judgment” pictures justice as a straight thing pulled out of line. When you speak in a case, your words are to follow the truth, even when the gate is full of people who want another answer. Leviticus states the standard: “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour” (Leviticus 19:15).

The first half is a rule for the whole of life, well beyond the court. Paul writes, “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). Jesus says that the broad way to destruction has many travellers and the narrow way to life has few (Matthew 7:13–14).

Two verses in this passage speak of the poor man in court, and they guard him from opposite errors.

Verse 3 guards against a kindly temptation. The verb hâdar means to swell up, and so to favour or honour someone. The KJV’s “countenance” means to show favour, which is why the ESV reads “you shall not be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit” and the NIV “Do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit.” The poor man here is dal, a word for someone poor, weak, thin or low, and his “cause” is a rîyb, a contest or dispute, which here means a lawsuit. A judge who sees a weak man facing a strong one may wish to decide for him out of pity. The law says that his case stands or falls on its merits, as anyone’s does.

Verse 6 guards against the commoner danger. “Wrest” is nâṭâh again, the verb behind “decline” in verse 2, and here it means bending a verdict away from a person who has a right to it. “Judgment” is mishpâṭ, a word that covers a verdict, justice itself, and a person’s right. The poor man of this verse is ʼebyôwn, the destitute and needy person, from a root meaning to want. He had little land, money or family influence, so a stronger opponent could easily have his claim ignored or twisted. God calls him “thy poor”, which lays him on the community as its own to protect.

The rest of Scripture says the same. Judges are told to hear the small and the great alike (Deuteronomy 1:17) and to keep judgment straight (Deuteronomy 16:19), and the law names the stranger and the fatherless among those whose judgment must be left unbent (Deuteronomy 24:17). Proverbs warns against oppressing the poor (Proverbs 22:22–23). Isaiah calls God’s people to seek judgment (Isaiah 1:17), a psalm calls judges to defend the poor and needy (Psalm 82:3–4), and the LORD’s servant is promised as the one who brings justice (Isaiah 42:1–4). James applies the principle to the church when he warns against partiality (James 2:1–9). Behind every one of these stands God himself, who regards no person’s standing (Deuteronomy 10:17).

In the middle of laws about courts stand two commands about animals on the road. The “enemy” of verse 4 is ʼôyêb, from a verb meaning to be hostile, and in this setting he is a personal adversary, a neighbour with whom you have a quarrel. His ox or ass is “going astray”, tâʻâh, to wander or stray. Such animals were a family’s wealth and labour, so a lost one meant real hardship. God commands, “thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.” The Hebrew repeats the verb shûwb, to turn back or return, in a form that gives the command its force, and the KJV shows this with “surely”. Finding the animal makes you responsible for it, whoever its owner is.

Verse 5 asks for harder work. The ass, chămôwr, a male donkey and the ordinary beast of burden, has collapsed under its load, and its owner is “him that hateth thee”, from sânêʼ, to hate. The verse names the temptation honestly: “and wouldest forbear to help him”. God knows the wish to walk past, and he overrules it. The verb for help, ʻâzab, usually means to loosen or relinquish, and here it carries the sense of helping. It is repeated for emphasis as shûwb was in verse 4. The words “with him” put you beside the man who hates you, lifting the same load. A shared task of that kind can cool a quarrel, even if only for a while.

Deuteronomy gives the same duties toward a brother’s lost property and fallen animal (Deuteronomy 22:1–4). Proverbs tells us to feed a hungry enemy (Proverbs 25:21–22), and Paul tells us to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:20–21). Jesus carries the command to its full height when he tells his disciples to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them (Matthew 5:43–44). In the parable of the Good Samaritan, help is given across a line of hostility with nothing expected in return (Luke 10:25–37).

Verse 7 returns to the court with the gravest case. “Keep thee far” is râchaq, and it asks for distance, a deliberate staying away from anything false. The word for “false” here is sheqer, a falsehood, lie or deception, an untruth or sham. It is a different Hebrew word from the “false” of verse 1, though the two commands guard the same ground.

The reason for the distance follows at once. A false charge in a court that can sentence to death may end in the killing of a guiltless person. The verb is hârag, to smite with deadly intent, and the two words for the victim are nâqîy, innocent or guiltless, and tsaddîyq, righteous or just. A witness or judge who brings about such a death has killed that person, and God counts it so.

Then God speaks of himself: “for I will not justify the wicked.” To justify is tsâdaq, to be right or to declare someone righteous, and the wicked are râshâʻ, the same word as in verse 1. God will never acquit the guilty, and a human court that does so answers to him. Proverbs calls the justifying of the wicked and the condemning of the just alike an abomination to the LORD (Proverbs 17:15), and Isaiah pronounces woe on those who acquit the guilty for a reward (Isaiah 5:23). The command to love truth rests on the God who cannot lie (Titus 1:2).

The “gift” of verse 8 is shachad, from the verb shâchad. The word can be used of any present, and in a setting of judgment it means a bribe. Presents to officials and judges were common, and the line between a courtesy and a payment for a verdict was easily blurred. God closes the question by forbidding the judge to take anything.

He gives the reason in two pictures. The gift “blindeth”, ʻâvar, the wise, who are called piqqêach here. A bribe works on the person who takes it, so that a judge with real discernment stops seeing the case as it is. The gift also “perverteth”, çâlaph, to wrench or subvert, the words (dâbâr) of the righteous (tsaddîyq). People who would otherwise speak truly find their testimony or their ruling bent. The warning is for good and able people as well as for the corrupt, since wisdom and uprightness are exactly what the gift attacks.

God himself takes no reward (Deuteronomy 10:17), and the law repeats this verse’s reasoning almost word for word (Deuteronomy 16:19). Proverbs says that the wicked take a gift to pervert judgment (Proverbs 17:23), Isaiah charges Jerusalem’s rulers with loving gifts (Isaiah 1:23), and a curse rests on the one who perverts the judgment of the stranger, the fatherless and the widow (Deuteronomy 27:19). Bribery always falls hardest on those who have nothing to offer. The principle covers business, government, teaching and every place where a favour could buy a decision.

The “stranger” of verse 9 is a gêr, a sojourner or resident alien, someone living in a land that is not the land of his origin, often for a long time or for good. The word is distinguished from zar, used of an outsider, and nokri, a foreigner. The gêr lived among Israel with no tribe, clan or inherited land to stand behind him, which made him easy to exploit. To “oppress” is lâchats, to press or squeeze, and it describes hardship that the strong lay on the weak.

God gives a reason that only Israel could feel: “for ye know the heart of a stranger”. The verb yâdaʻ is to know, and here the knowledge comes from experience. Israel had been pressed in exactly this way, with taskmasters and hard bondage (Exodus 1:11–14). God had seen their affliction, heard their cry and come down to deliver them (Exodus 3:7–8). The fear and helplessness of those years were to become mercy toward others. Their rescue was given so that they would be a people who treat the weak as God had treated them.

Leviticus takes the command further and tells Israel to love the stranger as themselves (Leviticus 19:33–34). Deuteronomy grounds it in God, who loves the stranger and gives him food and clothing, and who tells his people to love the stranger for the same reason given here (Deuteronomy 10:18–19).

Every law in this passage is kept perfectly by Jesus, and several were broken against him. He is the truth (John 14:6), the Word who was with God in the beginning (John 1:1–5), and he set himself against the devil, whom he called the father of lies (John 8:44). At his trial the council looked for false witnesses against him (Matthew 26:59–60), a multitude cried “Crucify him”, and the judge gave way to them (John 19:1–16). The innocent and righteous one was slain, as the centurion at the cross confessed (Luke 23:47).

Jesus himself never followed the crowd. He rebuked the scribes and Pharisees to their faces (Matthew 23:1–36), he came to do the will of the Father who sent him (John 6:38), he was obedient to the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8), and he told Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). No gift could turn him, even when Satan offered him all the kingdoms of the world (Matthew 4:8–10). He taught righteous judgment that looks past appearances (John 7:24), and in him all stand on equal ground before God (Galatians 3:28). He blessed the poor (Matthew 5:3, Luke 6:20), received sinners (Luke 15:1–2), and stood by the woman whose accusers brought her to him (John 8:1–11).

He also knows the heart of a stranger. As a child he was carried into Egypt to escape Herod (Matthew 2:13–15), and as a man he had nowhere to lay his head (Matthew 8:20). He was touched with the feeling of our infirmities, tempted as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He commanded us to love our neighbour as ourselves (Mark 12:31), and he counts what is done for the stranger and the least of his brethren as done for him (Matthew 25:31–46).

The commands about the enemy’s animals show the gospel most clearly. We were God’s enemies (Romans 5:10), astray and under a burden we could never lift. While we were still sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8), and by his death he brought us back and reconciled us to God (Colossians 1:21–22), who has given his people the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18–19). He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Those who were strangers are now fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household (Ephesians 2:19). The same Jesus is the judge God has appointed for the world (Acts 17:31, 2 Timothy 4:1), and at the great white throne the promise of verse 7 will be kept in full (Revelation 20:11–15).

These laws show who God is. He is truthful and impartial, he takes no bribe, he defends the poor and the stranger, and he is kind to those who are against him. He asks his people to be in their dealings what he is in his, which Micah sums up as doing justly, loving mercy and walking humbly with him (Micah 6:8).

The passage speaks to an age in which reports travel faster than they can be checked. Whoever passes on a false story has raised it, whether the story began with him or reached him from a thousand others. Paul gives the same rule to the church, that we put away lying and speak truth with our neighbour (Ephesians 4:25), and Christ has given us the Spirit of truth to guide us (John 16:13). Those who walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16) have his help to stand when a crowd is going the wrong way.

The laws also weigh kindness and truth together. Pity for the poor is right, and so is refusing to let pity bend a verdict. A quarrel may be real, and the fallen ass still has to be lifted. Verse 9 gives memory a use as well. Israel’s hard years became the reason for mercy, and the grace we have received from God is meant to shape how we treat the person who is new, weak or far from home.