Exodus 23:1-9

1 Thou shalt not admit a false rumour; put not thine hand with the wicked to be a false witness.

2 Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause hiding behind many to wrest judgment;

3 neither shalt thou honour a poor man in his cause.

4 If thou should encounter thine enemy’s ox or his ass astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.

5 If thou see the ass of him that hates thee lying under his burden, will thou forbear to help him? Thou shalt surely help him to raise it up.

6 Thou shalt not pervert the rights of thy poor in his cause.

7 Keep thee far from a false matter; and slay thou not the innocent and righteous; for I will not justify the wicked.

8 And thou shalt take no bribe; for the bribe blinds the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.

9 Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger, for ye know the state of the soul of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 23:1-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 23

This chapter contains several laws, chiefly judicial, relating to the civil polity of Israel, as concerning witness borne and judgment made of cases in courts of judicature, without any respect to poor or rich, and without the influence of a bribe, Ex 23:1-3,6-8, concerning doing good to an enemy in case any of his cattle go astray, or fall under their burden, Ex 23:4,5, and of the oppression of a stranger, Ex 23:9, and then follow others concerning the sabbath of the seventh year, and of the seventh day, with a caution against the use of the names of idols, Ex 23:10-13, next are laws concerning the appearance of all their males at the three feasts, Ex 23:14-17, and concerning the slaying of the sacrifice of the passover, and bringing the first of the firstfruits of the land, Ex 23:18,19 and then a promise is made of sending an angel to them to bring them into the land of Canaan, where they should carefully avoid all idolatry, and show a just indignation against it, and serve the Lord, and then it would be well with them, Ex 23:20-26, and particularly it is promised, that the Lord would send his fear, and his hornets, before them, to destroy the inhabitants of the land, and drive out the rest by little and little, until they should possess the utmost borders of it, which are fixed, Ex 23:27-31, and the chapter is concluded with a direction not to make a covenant with these people, or their gods, nor suffer them to dwell among them, lest they should be a snare unto them, Ex 23:32,33.