22.13 Evidence. Cf. 1 Sam 17.34–35; Am 3.12. Restitution…remains. In Gen 31.39 Jacob goes beyond the law.
22.14 An animal, not in the Hebrew; any borrowed property may be meant. Injured, “broken,” referring to an animal or object.
22.15 If the owner was present. The owner could have prevented a mishap as well as the borrower. It, the object or animal. The hiring fee is due because the renter paid for a sound implement or animal.
22.16 A virgin, a young woman. Is not, more precisely “has never been.” Bride-price. Cf. Gen 24.12; 1 Sam 18.25. Deut 22.29 specifies 50 shekels. Cf. Deut 22.23–27 (rape).
22.17 If her father refuses. Deut 22.29 excludes the circumstance so that the girl’s marriage is guaranteed. For virgins. Cf. the legal principle implied in (see note on) 22.5.
22.18–22 These laws are formulated apodictically (you shall/shall not) like the Ten Commandments.
22.18 Female sorcerer, from the Hebrew for “to cast a spell,” singled out perhaps for her popularity (cf. 1 Sam 28; Ezek 13.17–23); for the popularity of sorcery generally, see, e.g., 2 Kings 23.24; Isa 3.2–3. The Torah abominates any form of divine manipulation other than a direct approach to the Lord; cf. Lev 19.26, 31; 20.6, 27; Deut 18.9–14.
22.19 Cf. Lev 18.23; 20.15–16; Deut 27.21.
22.20 Devoted to destruction, placed under ban; see Deut 13.12–17; cf. Lev 27.28–29; Josh 6.21; 7; Judg 21.5–11; 1 Sam 15.1–9.
22.21 Oppress. See 3.9; cf. 23.9. Aliens. See Introduction.
22.22 Abuse. See 1.11–12. Orphan. Protecting the “fatherless,” along with the indigent widow, is an express duty of ancient Near Eastern monarchs as well as the Lord (e.g., Deut 10.18; Ps 68.5); cf., e.g., Deut 24.17; Isa 1.17; Jer 7.6; 22.3; Zech 7.10.
22.23 Cry. See 3.7.
22.24 Sword, in war (cf. Isa 9.11–17). Wives. Men are addressed (see note on 19.15). The grim poetic justice underscores the idea that Israel was liberated for the purpose of establishing a just society.
22.25 People, Israel. Cf. Lev 25.36–37; Deut 23.19–20; Ps 15.5; Prov 28.8; Ezek 18.8, 13, 17.
22.26–27 Cf. Deut 24.6, 10–13; Ezek 18.12, 16; 33.15.
22.26 Cloak. Cf. Am 2.8. An Israelite letter from the seventh century BCE complains that a laborer’s garment was seized for unsatisfactory work.
22.27 For…cover, lit. “for it is his only covering, it is his cloak for his skin.” Cf. Job 22.6; 24.7. Compassionate anticipates 34.6 (rendered gracious there).
22.28 Revile, rather “curse,” as in Lev 24.11–16, 23; cf. 1 Kings 21.13; Job 2.9–10; Isa 8.21. Leader. See note on 16.22; cf. 2 Sam 16.5–13. Quoted in Acts 23.5.
22.29 Offerings, added in translation, inferred from such passages as Num 18.11–12, 26–30; Deut 26.1–15; the juxtaposition with the firstborn law suggests first fruits (23.19) are meant, but tithes (Num 18.21–32; Deut 14.22–29) too may be intended. Firstborn. See note on 13.1–2.
22.30 On the eighth day, following a seven-day period for overcoming the ritual pollution that accompanies birth (Lev 12.2–3); see Lev 22.27; cf. Ex 29.35–37.
22.31 Consecrated, or “who are holy,” as in Lev 19.2, a similar context. Mangled. See note on 21.28.
EXODUS 23
Justice for All
1You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with the wicked to act as a malicious witness. 2You shall not follow a majority in wrongdoing; when you bear witness in a lawsuit, you shall not side with the majority so as to pervert justice; 3nor shall you be partial to the poor in a lawsuit.
4When you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it back.
5When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free.a
6You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in their lawsuits. 7Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and those in the right, for I will not acquit the guilty. 8You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the officials, and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.
9You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
Sabbatical Year and Sabbath
10For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield; 11but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat. You shall do the same with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.
12Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed. 13Be attentive to all that I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.
The Annual Festivals
14Three times in the year you shall hold a festival for me. 15You shall observe the festival 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.
No one shall appear before me empty-handed.
16You shall observe the festival of harvest, of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall observe the festival of ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. 17Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD.
18You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the fat of my festival remain until the morning.
19The choicest of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God.
You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
The Conquest of Canaan Promised
20I am going to send an angel in front of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. 21Be attentive to him and listen to his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; for my name is in him.
22But if you listen attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.
23When my angel goes in front of you, and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, 24you shall not bow down to their gods, or worship them, or follow their practices, but you shall utterly demolish them and break their pillars in pieces. 25You shall worship the LORD your God, and Ib will bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness away from among you. 26No one shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. 27I will send my terror in front of 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. 28And I will send the pestilencec in front of you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. 29I will not drive them out from before you in one year, or the land would become desolate and the wild animals would multiply against you. 30Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. 31I will set your borders from the Red Sead to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates; for I will hand over to you the inhabitants of the land, and you shall drive them out before you. 32You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. 33They shall not live in your land, or they will make you sin against me; for if you worship their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.
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a Meaning of Heb uncertain
b Gk Vg: Heb he
c Or hornets: Meaning of Heb uncertain
d Or Sea of Reeds
23.1–3 Laws addressed to potential witnesses.
23.1 False. Cf. (and see note on) 20.16; Lev 19.16; Deut 5.20. Malicious. See Pss 27.12; 35.11. The penalty would seem to be as in Deut 19.18–19 (and in the Code of Hammurabi).
23.3 Partial. See Deut 16.19. To the po
or, in light of Lev 19.15; Deut 1.17, and esp. v. 6 below, “(even) to the poor,” for whom sympathy is natural (for the style see v. 4).
23.4 Your enemy’s, “(even) your enemy’s” (see note on 23.3), anyone’s; cf. Deut 22.1–3. On overcoming hatred, cf. Lev 19.17–18.
23.5 One who hates, a poetic synonym of enemy (e.g., Ps 21.8). Setting it free, or “unloading it” cf. Deut 22.4, where loading or “lifting up,” a more demanding activity, is called for.
23.6–9 These verses resume vv. 1–3 and address judges.
23.6 See note on 23.3; cf. Ps 82.3–4; Isa 10.2; Jer 5.28; Am 2.6–7; 5.12.
23.7 False charge. Cf. v. 1. Kill, by erroneous condemnation; cf. Ps 94.6–7. Acquit, “declare in the right” (as in Deut 25.1); cf. Ex 34.7.
23.8 See Deut 1.17; 16.19; 27.25; cf. Ps 26.9–10; Prov 17.23; Isa 1.23; 5.23; Ezek 22.12; Mic 3.11.
23.9 See 22.21; Introduction.
23.10–11 Cf. the cultic emphasis of Lev 25.1–7, 20–22 and the socioeconomic emphasis of Deut 15.
23.12 Refreshed, like the Lord after creation (31.17). See note on 20.8–11; cf. the motive in 23.11; Deut 5.14–15.
23.13 Invoke may be taken to elaborate 20.3; cf. Josh 23.7; Hos 2.17; Zech 13.2. The repetitive, impressionistic style called “parallelism” brings the section to closure.
23.14–17 On the calendar, see note on 12.2.
23.14 Hold a festival. See note on 5.1.
23.15 Commanded. See 12.14–20; 13.3–10. The Passover offering, a home ritual (see 12.1–11), is not mentioned here (see note on 12.1–28). Abib. See note on 12.2. Appear before me, lit. “see my face,” an idiom meaning “to worship,” devolving from the practice of seeing a god’s image in a shrine (e.g., Ps 42.2; Isa 1.12). Empty-handed. See note on 3.21.
23.16 Festival of harvest, the Festival of Weeks (34.22; Num 28.26; Deut 16.10; cf. Lev 23.15), so named for its timing seven weeks after Passover (Lev 23.15; Deut 16.9). First fruits. The first produce of each crop, like human and animal firstborn (see note on 13.1–2), is rendered to God; cf. v. 19. Deut 26.1–11 does not connect first fruits with a particular festival. The crop is elsewhere described as wheat (34.22), “new grain” (Lev 23.16; Num 28.26), and “standing grain” (Deut 16.9). Festival of ingathering, the Festival of Booths (Lev 23.34; Deut 16.13). The Priestly traditions reflected in Lev 23.34; Num 29.12 date it to the fifteenth day of the seventh month. Fruit of your labor. See Deut 16.13.
23.17 Males. See note on 10.11. Appear before, “see the face of” (see note on 23.15). Lord, rendered master in 21.4–6, implying the Israelites are the Lord’s servants (Lev 25.55). GOD, the name Yahweh, elsewhere rendered LORD.
23.18 Leavened, in light of 34.25; Deut 16.3–4, an addendum to v. 15. Fat, the hard, inedible coating of the entrails, burned into smoke (e.g., 29.12; Lev 3.5) and savored by God, signifying acceptance (e.g., Gen 8.21; Lev 26.31). Until the morning. See note on 12.10.
23.19 Choicest, rendered best in 34.26; an addendum to v. 16. The amount depends on individual ability (Deut 16.17). House, a temple such as that at Shiloh (Judg 18.31; 1 Sam 1.17) or Jerusalem (1 Kings 8.10). You shall not…milk. Mixing death with a life fluid is ritually polluting (cf. loss of blood or semen from a reproductive organ, Lev 12; 15). The context here and in 34.26 is opaque, but in Deut 14.21 the law occurs among eating regulations.
23.20–33 Biblical law is presented through the analogy of ancient Near Eastern treaty conditions that an overlord (the Lord) imposes on a vassal (Israel). Such treaties conclude with curses to befall the vassal should it disobey. Blessings and curses conclude legislation in Lev 26; Deut 28. Here they are intermixed with commands because the legislation does not end but resumes with cultic law. The passage is elaborated in Deut 7.12–26.
23.20 Angel. Cf. 14.19; see Josh 5.13–15; Judg 2.1–5.
23.21 Name, a concretization of the deity; e.g., Deut 12.5, 11; Pss 20.1; 54.1.
23.22 Foe, Hebrew tsar, perhaps a play on “Egypt” (mitsrayim). Cf. Lev 26.7–8; Deut 28.7. The last two clauses are parallel (see note on 3.15).
23.23 Jebusites. Cf. 3.17; Josh 3.10; 24.11. Blot…out, as Pharaoh has been (the same Hebrew verb rendered cut off in 9.15).
23.24 Bow down…worship. Cf. 20.5; Deut 28.14. Pillars, steles, representing deities, on which libations are poured, well attested archaeologically in Canaan; cf. 34.13; Deut 12.3. Israelite pillars are eventually forbidden (Lev 26.1; Deut 16.22; 2 Kings 18.4; 23.14).
23.25 Bread. Cf. Lev 26.5, 26. Sickness, such as God brought upon Egypt (the same Hebrew word translated diseases in 15.26); cf. Lev 26.16; Deut 28.21–22, 58–61.
23.26 Cf. Lev 26.9; Deut 28.4, 11; also cf. Lev 26.22 (“bereave” is the same Hebrew verb as miscarry here); Deut 28.18, 63.
23.27 Terror. Cf. 15.14–16; see note on 14.24. Throw into confusion, as the Lord has done to Egypt (14.24, where threw…into panic is the same verb); cf. Josh 10.10; also cf. Lev 26.36–37; Deut 28.20, 28–29. Turn their backs, as Israel must do when it is punished (Josh 7.8, 12); cf. Lev 26.7–8; Deut 28.7; 28.25.
23.28 Pestilence, Hebrew tsir‘ah, personified angel of destruction as in v. 20 and like “the destroyer” of (see note on) 12.13; in Hebrew it echoes foe in v. 22; cf. Deut 7.20; Josh 24.12. Hivites…Hittites, a list abridged from v. 23.
23.29 In one year, as in Josh 10–11, but gradually as in Josh 13; Judg 1. Wild animals. Cf. Lev 26.22; Lam 5.18.
23.30 Increased, as you began to do in Egypt (1.7, 12). Possess, inherit (e.g., Josh 14.1); cf. Josh 13.6–7.
23.31 Sea of the Philistines, the Mediterranean (“Western Sea” in Deut 11.24; “Great Sea” in Josh 1.4). Wilderness, the Negeb (cf. Deut 11.24; Josh 1.4). Euphrates, lit. “the river” (see Deut 11.24). Cf. the extent of Solomon’s kingdom (1 Kings 4.21).
23.32–33 These verses are elaborated in 34.11–16; cf. Josh 23.12–13; Judg 2.2–3; and note the Gibeonites’ trick in Josh 9.
23.33 A snare, eventually leading to disaster; cf. Judg 8.27; 1 Sam 18.21.
EXODUS 24
The Blood of the Covenant
1Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship at a distance. 2Moses alone shall come near the LORD; but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”
3Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.” 4And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. He rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and set up twelve pillars, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5He sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed oxen as offerings of well-being to the LORD. 6Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he dashed against the altar. 7Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8Moses took the blood and dashed it on the people, and said, “See the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
On the Mountain with God
9Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11Goda did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; also they beheld God, and they ate and drank.
12The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.”
15Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud c
overed the mountain. 16The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. 17Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.
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a Heb He
24.1–8 Ritual ratification of the covenant (cf. note on 19.1–9), an apparent but imprecise sequel to 19.24 (see 20.21).
24.1 To Moses. Cf. the address to all Israel (20.22). To the LORD. The Lord refers to himself in the third person as in 19.24. Nadab, and Abihu. Cf. 6.23. Seventy, a full complement (cf. 1.5). Cf. Num 11.16–17, 24–25. Elders. Cf. 19.7. Worship, lit. “bow down.” At a distance. Cf. 20.18, 21.
24.3 Came, presumably prior to fulfilling the command in vv. 1–2; see note on 24.9–11. Ordinances, in 20.23–23.19. Do. Cf. v. 7; 19.8; see note on 19.1–9. The repetition of all suggests completion.
24.4 Wrote down. Cf. 17.14. The book (v. 7), presumably parchment since stone is not specified (as in v. 12; 31.18), may be understood to be deposited in the ark (25.16, 21) as was customary with treaty documents. Pillars, as witnesses (Gen 31.44–48; Josh 24.26–27); cf. note on 23.24.
24.5 Young men, acting as cultic assistants prior to the establishment of the hereditary priesthood (cf. 1 Sam 2.11–18). Oxen, rather “bulls” the term occurs at the end of the sentence in the Hebrew, meaning that both types of offering consist of bulls. Well-being. See note on 20.24. The people eat the flesh of this offering (see Lev 3) so that both parties partake.
24.6 The Hebrew term translated basins here is never used of implements in priestly practices. Altar, the Lord’s surrogate in the ceremony.
24.7 Read it. Cf. Deut 31.9–13; 2 Kings 23.1–3; Neh 8.1–8. Be obedient, rendered listen in 20.19.
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