Exodus 23:9

9 Don't oppress an immigrant. You know what it's like to be an immigrant, because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 23:9 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 23:9

Also thou shall not oppress a stranger
As these were not to be vexed and oppressed in a private manner and by private men, see ( Exodus 22:21 ) so neither in a public manner, and in a public court of judicature, or by judges on the bench when their cause was before them, by not doing them justice, showing a partiality to those of their own nation against a stranger; whereas a stranger ought to have equal justice done him as a native, and the utmost care should be taken that he has no injury done him, and the rather because he is a stranger:

for ye know the heart of a stranger;
the fears he is possessed of, the inward distress of his soul, the anxiety of his mind, the tenderness of his heart, the workings of his passions, his grief and sorrow, and dejection of spirit: the Targum of Jonathan is,

``"the groaning of the soul of a stranger": this the Israelitish judges knew, having had a very late experience of it:''

seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt;
where they had been vexed and oppressed, brought into hard bondage, and groaned under it; and therefore it might be reasonably thought and expected that they would have a heart sympathizing with strangers, and use them well, and especially see that justice was done them, and no injury or oppression of any kind.

Exodus 23:9 In-Context

7 Stay away from making a false charge. Don't put an innocent person who is in the right to death, because I will not consider innocent those who do such evil.

8 Don't take a bribe, because a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.

9 Don't oppress an immigrant. You know what it's like to be an immigrant, because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt.

10 For six years you should plant crops on your land and gather in its produce.

11 But in the seventh year you should leave it alone and undisturbed so that the poor among your people may eat. What they leave behind, the wild animals may eat. You should do the same with your vineyard and your olive trees.