Exodus 23:10-19

Sabbath Laws

10 “For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops,
11 but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.
12 “Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed.
13 “Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.

The Three Annual Festivals

14 “Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.
15 “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt. “No one is to appear before me empty-handed.
16 “Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field. “Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.
17 “Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD.
18 “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast. “The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning.
19 “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Exodus 23:10-19 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.

Cross References 19

  • 1. Leviticus 25:1-7; Nehemiah 10:31
  • 2. S Exodus 20:9; Luke 13:14
  • 3. Genesis 2:2-3
  • 4. Deuteronomy 4:9,23; 1 Timothy 4:16
  • 5. ver 32; Deuteronomy 12:3; Joshua 23:7; Psalms 16:4; Zechariah 13:2
  • 6. Deuteronomy 18:20; Joshua 23:7; Psalms 16:4; Hosea 2:17
  • 7. ver 17; S Exodus 12:14; Exodus 34:23,24; Deuteronomy 16:16; 1 Kings 9:25; 2 Chronicles 8:13; Ezekiel 46:9
  • 8. S Exodus 12:17; Matthew 26:17; Luke 22:1; Acts 12:3
  • 9. S Exodus 12:2
  • 10. S Exodus 22:29; Exodus 34:20
  • 11. Leviticus 23:15-21; Numbers 28:26; Deuteronomy 16:9; 2 Chronicles 8:13
  • 12. S Exodus 22:29; S Exodus 34:22
  • 13. Exodus 34:22; Leviticus 23:34,42; Deuteronomy 16:16; Deuteronomy 31:10; Ezra 3:4; Nehemiah 8:14; Zechariah 14:16
  • 14. Leviticus 23:39; Deuteronomy 16:13; Jeremiah 40:10
  • 15. S ver 14; Deuteronomy 16:16
  • 16. Exodus 34:25; Leviticus 2:11
  • 17. S Exodus 12:8; Deuteronomy 16:4
  • 18. S Exodus 22:29; S Exodus 34:22; S Numbers 18:12; Deuteronomy 26:2,10
  • 19. Exodus 34:26; Deuteronomy 14:21
Scripture quoted by permission.  Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.  NIV®.  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica.  All rights reserved worldwide.