Exodus Chapter 23

From The Open Bible Project

23:1 "You shall not spread a false report. Don't join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness.

23:2 "You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; neither shall you testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice;

• (a) Do that which is godly, though few favour it.

23:3 neither shall you favor a poor man in his cause.

23:4 "If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.

• (b) If we are bound to do good to our enemies beast, how much more to our enemy himself, Mt 5:44.

23:5 If you see the donkey of him who hates you fallen down under his burden, don't leave him, you shall surely help him with it.

• (c) If God commands us to help our enemy's donkey under his burden, will he suffer us to cast down our brethren with heavy burdens?

23:6 "You shall not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.

23:7 "Keep far from a false charge, and don't kill the innocent and righteous: for I will not justify the wicked.

• (d) Whether you are the magistrate or are commanded by the magistrate.

23:8 "You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.

23:9 "You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien, seeing you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

• (e) For since he is a stranger, his heart is sorrowful enough.

23:10 "For six years you shall sow your land, and shall gather in its increase,

23:11 but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the animal of the field shall eat. In like manner you shall deal with your vineyard and with your olive grove.

23:12 "Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your handmaid, and the alien may be refreshed.

23:13 "Be careful to do all things that I have said to you; and don't invoke the name of other gods, neither let them be heard out of your mouth.

• (f) Neither by swearing by them, nor speaking of them, Ps 16:4, Eph 5:3.

23:14 "You shall observe a feast to me three times a year.

23:15 You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it you came out from Egypt), and no one shall appear before me empty.

• (g) That is, Easter, in remembrance that the angel passed over and spared the Israelites, when he slew the first born of the Egyptians.

23:16 And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you sow in the field: and the feast of harvest, at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors out of the field.

• (h) Which is Whit Sunday, in token that the law was given 50 days after they departed from Egypt.
• (i) This is the feast of tabernacles, signifying that they lived for 40 years in the tents or the tabernacles in the wilderness.

23:17 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh.

23:18 "You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, neither shall the fat of my feast remain all night until the morning.

• (k) No leavened bread will be in your house.

23:19 The first of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of Yahweh your God. "You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

• (l) Meaning, that no fruit should be taken before just time: and by this all cruel and wanton appetites are controlled.

23:20 "Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.

23:21 Pay attention to him, and listen to his voice. Don't provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience, for my name is in him.

• (m) I will give him my authority, and he will govern you in my name.

23:22 But if you indeed listen to his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary to your adversaries.

23:23 For my angel shall go before you, and bring you in to the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I will cut them off.

23:24 You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor follow their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow them and demolish their pillars.

• (n) God commands his own to not only not worship idols, but to destroy them.

23:25 You shall serve Yahweh your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from your midst.

• (o) That is, all things necessary for this present life.

23:26 No one will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days.

23:27 I will send my terror before you, and will confuse all the people to whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

• (p) I will make them afraid of your coming and send my angel to destroy them, as in Ex 35:2.

23:28 I will send the hornet before you, which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you.

23:29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the animals of the field multiply against you.

23:30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and inherit the land.

23:31 I will set your border from the [20] Red Sea [See Exodus Footnotes 20] even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.

• (q) Called the Sea of Syria.
• (r) Of Arabia called desert.
• (s) That is, Ephraim.

23:32 You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.

23:33 They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you."