Exodus 23

Exodus 23 is the final chapter of the Book of the Covenant, the collection of legal ordinances given at Mount Sinai that begins at Exodus 20:22. It completes the social ordinances of Exodus 22 and leads into the ratification of the covenant in Exodus 24.

Outline

• Verses 1–3 Do not raise a false report, do not follow a multitude in bearing false witness, and do not show partiality to a poor man in his cause.
• Verses 4–5 Return an enemy's stray ox or ass, and help an ass that has fallen under its burden.
• Verses 6–9 Judge justly, take no bribe, and do not oppress the stranger.
• Verses 10–13 Let the land lie fallow in the seventh year and rest on the seventh day; make no mention of the names of other gods.
• Verses 14–17 Keep three feasts each year: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering.
• Verses 18–19 Regulations on sacrifices, the offering of firstfruits, and the ordinance against seething a kid in its mother's milk.
• Verses 20–33 God will send an angel and hornets before Israel and drive out the peoples of Canaan little by little; Israel must make no covenant with them or with their gods.

Key Verses

• Exodus 23:5 "thou shalt surely help with him" — an ordinance requiring help even for one who hates you; it is read alongside the New Testament teaching on love of enemies.
• Exodus 23:9 "seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt" — the experience of the Exodus becomes the ground for protecting the stranger.
• Exodus 23:16 "And the feast of harvest" — in Korean Protestant churches, the name of the early-harvest thanksgiving observance (Maechu Gamsajeol) derives from this feast.

People and Places

• The LORD: the speaker who gives the ordinances and promises guidance
• The angel: a being who goes before the people and protects them (see Angel)
• The Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites: the peoples living in the Promised Land
• The Red Sea, the sea of the Philistines (the Mediterranean), and the river (commonly identified as the Euphrates): the boundaries of the Promised Land

Points for Reflection

• The three feasts correspond to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which follows Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Weeks is connected with the New Testament outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
• Interpretations of the angel in verses 20–23 differ. Some Church Fathers and Reformed commentators, citing "for my name is in him" (v. 21), regard the angel as a preincarnate appearance of Christ. Others understand it to be an angel sent by God.
• The ordinance concerning the kid in verse 19 is repeated in Exodus 34:26 and Deuteronomy 14:21. Rabbinic Jewish tradition made it the basis for the dietary law against eating meat and dairy together. The text itself does not state the reason for the ordinance.
• Verses 10–12 contain the ordinances of the sabbatical year and the Sabbath; the benefit of rest extends to the poor, servants, strangers, and even animals.