Exodus 23 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Exodus 23

23:1 “You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. 2 You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, 3 nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.

4 “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. 5 If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him.

6 “You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit. 7 Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. 8 And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.

9 “You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Laws About the Sabbath and Festivals

10 “For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, 11 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. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.

12 “Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed.

13 “Pay attention to all that I have said to you, and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let it be heard on your lips.

14 “Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. 15 You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed. 16 You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. 17 Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord GOD.

18 “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the fat of my feast remain until the morning.

19 “The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God.

“You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Conquest of Canaan Promised

20 “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. 21 Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.

22 “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

23 “When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, 24 you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. 25 You shall serve the LORD your God, and he¹ will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you. 26 None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. 27 I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28 And I will send hornets² before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. 29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. 31 And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates,³ for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. 32 You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. 33 They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

Footnotes

[1] 23:25 Septuagint, Vulgate I
[2] 23:28 Or the hornet
[3] 23:31 Hebrew the River

Commentary

v1-9: God's justice was to be reflected in the lives of His people.

v1-3: Lying, false witness, evil scheming, partiality; beware of the crowd set in evil; the command here was to follow the Lord even where it was not popular. We must speak the truth in love.

v4-5: Kindness must also be shown to one's enemies.

v6-9: Justice for the poor, the innocent, and the righteous. Injustice and false accusations, bribery and oppression, are all here condemned.

The standard of life set down here is both high and marvellous; a place of justice and kindness.

v10-12: The Sabbath principle was to be applied both one day in seven, and one year in seven. This provided rest for servants and animals, and provided food for the poor, and for wild animals.

v13: Be circumspect. The names of other gods were not even to be mentioned amongst the people of the true God. The Christian should likewise speak much of Christ, and little of the devil. There is also the lesson to avoid speaking much of sins, whether our own or others'; Eph 5.21.

v14: The Israelites had to observe three annual feasts to the Lord.

v15: The first of the feasts was the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which had earlier been commanded, 13.3-10. This Feast was especially linked with the deliverance from Egypt. One aspect of the Feast was that of gratitude, since the people had to appear before the Lord with something in their hands.

v16: The Feasts of Harvest and Ingathering were laid down before they were celebrated, another reminder of the Lord's promise that the people would indeed enter and live in the promised land. These Feasts related to the harvest, one at the beginning, the time of First Fruits, the other at the end, when all the crops had been gathered in.

v18-19: Laws relating to the Feasts; not to offer blood with a sacrifice containing yeast, and any fat was not to be kept until morning. The best of the first fruits were to be kept for the Lord. Offerings to the Lord must be made His way.

v20: God's promise of guidance; He will not leave us to find our own way. He will keep us and bring us.

v21-22: God's guidance was more than just a place to go, but a life to be lived. The choice before the people was simple; obey for blessing, disobey for judgment. The angel could not forgive their sins.

v23: Future victory promised, for there would be those who would fight against the Israelites.

v24: Be ruthless with sins. The commands are clear; do not worship other gods, and do not learn the ways of the ungodly. We should not seek to learn the ways of the world, for God's people must learn God's ways.

v25-26: A repeated promise; if the people set their hearts on the true God, then there were real blessings for them.

v27-28: The Canaanite nations were to be driven out of the land. Again this was clearly promised by the Lord, and He was committed to seeing it fulfilled.

v29-30: Gradual driving out of ins; this may be a better way in our lives, since a vacuum may invite "seven worse demons". Even so, this gives no reason to tolerate sin. We should be gracious and patient with others as they seek to defeat sins in their lives.

v31: The geographic region that was to be occupied, compare 1 Kings 4.20.

v32-33: Peaceful co-existence was a compromise, and had to be avoided. The end result of such 'tolerance' would be sin against God. The Israelites had to realise that compromise was the route back to bondage.