exodus 23
Exodus 23:1:
Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
Exodus 23: 2-3:
You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice . 3 You shall not show partiality to a poor man in his dispute. |
New International version translates this: "Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, and do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit."
After the many precepts in favour of the poor, this injunction produces a sort of shock. But it is to be understood as simply forbidding any undue favouring of the poor because they are poor, and so as equivalent to the precept in Leviticus 19:15, "Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor." In courts of justice, strict justice is to be rendered, without any leaning either towards the rich, or towards the poor. To lean either way is to pervert judgment. The word דל dal, which we translate poor man, is probably put here in opposition to רבים rabbim, the great, or noble men, in the preceding verse: if so, the meaning is, Thou shalt neither be influenced by the great to make an unrighteous decision, nor by the poverty or distress of the poor to give thy voice against the dictates of justice and truth. Hence the ancient maxim, Fiat Justitia, Ruat Coelum. "Let justice be done, though the heavens should be dissolved." Bensons Commentary: Thus we are properly cautioned against an opposite error which we may be also in danger of falling into, that of respecting the poor man’s cause, out of pity and compassion, when the cause of the richer man is more just. For however great the compassion of God may be for the poor, and how much soever he may recommend them to our care and protection, he would not have our tenderness for them carry us to countenance them unjustly, or give a wrong judgment for their sakes. The meaning of this and the former verse is, that there must be no respect of persons, whether rich or poor, but an impartial consideration of the cause. |
Exodus 23:6:
“You shall not pervert the judgment of your poor in his dispute. |
As the poor man was not to be favoured when his cause was bad through an affected pity for him as a poor man, so his judgment was not to be wrested or perverted, when his cause was good, because of his poverty; which is too often the case, through the power of rich men, and the prevalence of their gifts and bribes, and to curry favour with them: the phrase, "thy poor", is very emphatic, and intended to engage judges to regard them, as being of the same flesh and blood with them, of the same nation and religion; and who were particularly committed to their care and protection under God, who is the Judge and protector of the poor, of the widow and the fatherless. --John Gill's Commentary
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Exodus 23: 10-11:
Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, 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 beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove. |
Agriculturally this would allow the land to rest so that it could recover its vitality. It was a practise observed also in other nations. But here it was made an offering to the poor. During the six years the farmer could gather in and store his grain ready for the seventh year, and he would cater for his bondmen, but the poor who worked for others, as they could, would have no grain on the seventh year for there would be no work. This thus catered for their need. And each seventh year would be dedicated to God in recognition of His gift of the land to His people. This is made specific in Leviticus 25:4 but it is clearly its intent here as is evident from its connection with the weekly sabbath in the following verse. Both are sabbaths to Yahweh their God (Exodus 20:10) --Peter Petts Commentary
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Exodus 23:14: “Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.”
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