The Law · Chapter 23 of 40

Exodus 23

God commands truthfulness and impartial justice, forbidding false reports, bribes, and following crowds into wrong, and even requires helping an enemy's stray or overburdened animal. He institutes the sabbatical year and weekly rest for the poor and beasts, and appoints three yearly feasts. Then God promises to send His Angel, in whom His name dwells, to guard Israel on the way and bring them into the land, urging them to obey His voice.

What happens in Exodus 23

God continues the covenant laws with a call to integrity in justice: do not spread false reports, join a crowd to do evil, pervert judgment, take bribes, or oppress the stranger. Remarkably, He commands returning an enemy's straying ox and helping the overloaded donkey of one who hates you. God establishes the sabbatical year, letting the land rest every seventh year so the poor and wild animals may eat, and the weekly Sabbath so servants and beasts are refreshed.

He forbids invoking other gods and appoints three annual feasts, Unleavened Bread, Harvest, and Ingathering, when all males appear before Him with offerings. God then promises to send an Angel before Israel to keep them in the way and bring them to the prepared place, warning them to obey His voice, for His name is in Him. If they obey, God will be an enemy to their enemies, drive out the nations little by little, prosper them, and set their borders.

Exodus 23 in context

Exodus 23 concludes the Book of the Covenant with laws on justice, rest, and worship, then transitions to promise. The impartial justice demanded here, even toward enemies, anticipates Jesus' teaching on loving foes. The sabbatical year and feasts wove rest and gratitude into Israel's calendar and cared for the poor and the land.

The Angel bearing God's name, sent to guide and guard, is understood by many Christians as a manifestation of God's own presence going before His people.

Main themes of Exodus 23

Exodus 23 (KJV)

1Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. 2Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment: 3Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause. 4If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. 5If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him. 6Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause. 7Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked. 8And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous. 9Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 10And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: 11But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard. 12Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed. 13And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. 14Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. 15Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:) 16And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field. 17Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the LORD God. 18Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning. 19The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk. 20Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. 21Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. 22But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. 23For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off. 24Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. 25And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. 26There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil. 27I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. 28And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. 29I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. 30By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. 31And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. 32Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. 33They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.

Verses to carry from Exodus 23

“If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.”Exodus 23:4

“Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.”Exodus 23:9

“Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.”Exodus 23:20

Reflection

God wove justice, rest, and kindness even to enemies into the fabric of ordinary life, and promised His presence to lead the way. Where is God asking you to do good to someone who has wronged you, or to trust Him with needed rest? Follow the Guide who bears His name and prepares your place.

A prayer from Exodus 23