Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 23
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Exodus 23
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Exodus 23
"Thou shalt not take up a false report: put not thy hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness." — Exodus 23:1 (ASV)
Thou shalt not raise a false report.—The Septuagint and Vulgate translate, “Thou shalt not receive a false report”—that is, give it credit, accept it as true, and act upon it. This meaning accords well with the succeeding clause, which forbids our giving support to the false testimony of others. In both clauses, the principle of the ninth commandment is extended from principals to accessories.
"Thou shalt not take up a false report: put not thy hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. 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]: neither shalt thou favor a poor man in his cause. If thou meet thine enemy`s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. 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. Thou shalt not wrest the justice [due] to thy poor in his cause. Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked. And thou shalt take no bribe: for a bribe blindeth them that have sight, and perverteth the words of the righteous. And a sojourner shalt thou not oppress: for ye know the heart of a sojourner, seeing ye were sojourners in the land of Egypt. And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the increase thereof: 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. 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. 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. Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. 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: 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. Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord Jehovah. 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. 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 it mother`s milk." — Exodus 23:1-19 (ASV)
The “miscellaneous laws” are here continued. From Exodus 23:1 to Exodus 23:9 no kind of sequence in the laws can be traced; from Exodus 23:10 to the first clause of Exodus 23:19 there is, on the contrary, a certain connection, since the laws enunciated are concerned with ceremonial observance. The closing law, however, is not ceremonial, but the prohibition of a practice considered to be cruel. On the whole, it may be said that The Book of the Covenant maintains its unsystematic character to the end. (See Note on Exodus 20:22-26.)
"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]:" — Exodus 23:2 (ASV)
You shall not follow a multitude to do evil... — It is perhaps true that the offense especially condemned is joining with a majority in an unrighteous judgment; but the words of the precept extend much further than this, and forbid our being carried away by numbers or popularity in any case. Vox populi vox Dei is a favorite maxim with many, but Scripture nowhere sanctions it. Job boasts that he did not fear a great multitude (Job 31:34).
David says that the ten thousands of the people set themselves against him round about (Psalms 3:6). The prophets had always the multitude against them. Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, said our blessed Lord, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. But wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat (Matthew 7:13–14). We must be prepared to face unpopularity if we would walk in accordance with the Law of God.
"neither shalt thou favor a poor man in his cause." — Exodus 23:3 (ASV)
Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause. —We must not “pervert judgment” either in favour of the rich or of the poor. Justice must hold her scales even, and be proof equally against a paltry fear of the rich and a weak compassion for the indigent. The cause alone is to be considered, not the persons. .
"If thou meet thine enemy`s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again." — Exodus 23:4 (ASV)
Thine enemy’s ox. —The general duty of stopping stray animals and restoring them to friendly owners, expressly taught in Deuteronomy 22:1-3, is here implied as if admitted by all. The legislator extends this duty to cases where the owner is our personal enemy. It was not generally recognized in antiquity that men’s enemies had any claims upon them. Cicero, indeed, says—“Sunt autem quædam officia etiam adversus eos servanda, a quibus injuriam aceeperis” (De Off. i. 11); but he stops short of enjoining active benevolence. Here and in Exodus 23:5 we have a sort of anticipation of Christianity—active kindness to an enemy being required, even when it costs us some trouble. The principle of friendliness is involved—the germ which in Christianity blossoms out into the precept, Love your enemies.
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