✝
← Bible
ARCBLIVREKJVVBL

Exodus 23

KJV · Chapter 23/40

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.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Laws are given regarding impartial justice, the land's rest every seven years, the observance of the Sabbath and the three annual feasts, and the promise that an angel will guide Israel to drive out the peoples of Canaan.

Explanation

This chapter concludes the so-called 'Book of the Covenant' with a series of instructions balancing social justice, periodic rest, and regular communal worship. The emphasis on not following the crowd to do evil, nor unfairly favoring the poor or the powerful in a legal dispute (v. 2-3), shows a commitment to judicial impartiality that resists both popular pressure and reverse favoritism. The principle of the sabbatical year, letting the land rest every seven years so that the poor could eat what grew on its own, demonstrates a vision that was both ecologically and socially advanced for its time. The three mandatory annual feasts (Unleavened Bread, Harvest/Weeks, and Ingathering/Tabernacles) structured Israel's religious calendar around moments of collective gratitude. The chapter closes with the promise of a gradual conquest of the promised land, warning that it would happen 'little by little' so that the land would not become a wasteland for lack of enough inhabitants.

Fun facts

  • The principle of the land's sabbatical year (every seven years) would be expanded centuries later in the Law of Moses to include the Year of Jubilee every 50 years (Leviticus 25), a complete system of economic rest and redistribution that few ancient civilizations attempted to implement in such a structured way.
  • The promise of the gradual expulsion of the peoples of Canaan, 'little by little... until thou be increased' (v. 29-30), shows a strategic and realistic approach, acknowledging the practical limitations of Israel itself, rather than promising an instant, complete conquest.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Exodus 23:1Forbids spreading false rumors and joining with a dishonest person to give false testimony, protecting the integrity of judicial proceedings in Israel.
  2. Exodus 23:2Here the subject is testifying in a trial: it is not acceptable to lie or distort the facts just because that is what the majority is saying. Group pressure is no excuse for a witness to misrepresent what they saw.
  3. Exodus 23:3Complements the previous prohibition against favoring the rich: even the poor should not receive special treatment in a trial, justice must be impartial.
  4. Exodus 23:4Determines that even the stray animal of a personal enemy must be returned, showing that obligations of good neighborliness hold regardless of rivalries.
  5. Exodus 23:5The law calls for helping even the animal of a personal enemy, if it has collapsed under the weight of its load. The idea is that the animal’s welfare and practical help cannot depend on who is someone’s friend or enemy.
  6. Exodus 23:6Repeats the principle of impartiality, this time warning against distorting judgment against the poor, the opposite of the risk mentioned in verse 3.
  7. Exodus 23:7Forbids both lying and condemning an innocent person, making clear that God will not validate an unjust sentence, even if human judges err.
  8. Exodus 23:8Forbids bribes, because money handed to a judge corrupts his judgment, even if the person considers himself upright enough to resist it.
  9. Exodus 23:9Repeats the prohibition against oppressing foreigners, already seen in chapter 22, reinforcing that the Israelites themselves knew that experience well from Egypt.
  10. Exodus 23:10Introduces the law of the sabbatical year: six years of normal cultivation of the land before the rest period explained in the next verse.
  11. Exodus 23:11Every seven years, the land had to rest, with no planting or organized harvest. Whatever grew on its own that year was left for the poor to gather freely, and whatever remained was left for the wild animals to eat.
  12. Exodus 23:12Repeats the commandment of the weekly sabbath, but highlights here the practical benefit also for working animals and for the household’s servants and foreigners.
  13. Exodus 23:13Closes this section of laws with a general reminder: no other god should even be mentioned by the people, returning to the first commandment.
  14. Exodus 23:14Introduces the calendar of mandatory feasts, going on to detail the three annual celebrations that every Israelite man had to keep.
  15. Exodus 23:15This is part of the instruction about the Feast of Unleavened Bread, one of the three annual feasts at which every Israelite man had to appear at the sanctuary. “None shall appear before me empty” means each person had to bring some offering along, in proportion to what he had, and not come to the celebration empty-handed.
  16. Exodus 23:16Describes the other two annual feasts: the feast of the harvest of the firstfruits, in the middle of the agricultural year, and the feast of the final ingathering, at the end of the year.
  17. Exodus 23:17Summarizes the obligation: three times a year, every Israelite man had to appear physically before God at the sanctuary for these feasts.
  18. Exodus 23:18Regulates technical details of the sacrifices: the blood could not be offered together with leavened bread, and the fat of the offering could not be kept until the next day.
  19. Exodus 23:19This short line later gave rise to the Jewish rule against mixing meat and milk in the same meal. In its original context, it likely forbade a ritual custom of the neighboring religions, cooking a young goat in its own mother’s milk as part of a fertility rite, though scholars are not entirely certain of the exact origin of the custom being forbidden.
  20. Exodus 23:20God promises to send an angel to guide and protect the people throughout the journey to the promised land, a figure who appears again at other points in the book.
  21. Exodus 23:21The “angel” mentioned in the previous verses had the authority to represent God before the people, guiding them along the way. The text explains that this angel acted invested with God’s own authority, which is why disobeying him carried the same weight as disobeying God directly.
  22. Exodus 23:22Makes the promised protection conditional on obedience: if the people follow the angel’s voice, God promises to act against Israel’s enemies as if they were His own enemies.
  23. Exodus 23:23The angel will lead the people directly against the inhabitants of Canaan, listing the same peoples mentioned in other promises of the land throughout the book.
  24. Exodus 23:24Forbids any form of worship of these peoples’ gods and demands the complete destruction of their religious statues, preventing foreign religious influence.
  25. Exodus 23:25Promises concrete blessings in exchange for faithfulness: plentiful food and protection from disease, linking obedience to physical well-being within that covenant context.
  26. Exodus 23:26Continues the list of practical blessings: guaranteed fertility and long life for whoever faithfully kept this covenant.
  27. Exodus 23:27Promises that fear itself, spread among the enemy peoples, would make the conquest of the land easier, causing them to flee even before a direct confrontation.
  28. Exodus 23:28“Hornets” are wasps: the text promises that swarms of these insects would help drive out the peoples living in the promised land before Israel’s arrival. It can be read literally, as an actual insect attack, or as an image of panic spread among the enemies; scholars read this detail both ways.
  29. Exodus 23:29Explains why the conquest of the land would not happen all at once: driving out all the peoples too quickly would leave the land empty and vulnerable to wild animals.
  30. Exodus 23:30The gradual conquest serves a practical purpose: giving Israel’s own people time to grow enough to occupy the entire conquered territory.
  31. Exodus 23:31Defines the future borders of the promised land, from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines and from the desert to the river Euphrates, an extent much larger than Israel actually occupied.
  32. Exodus 23:32Forbids any kind of formal covenant with the peoples of Canaan or with their gods, avoiding any commitment that would blend the two religious cultures.
  33. Exodus 23:33Justifies the previous prohibition: allowing these peoples to keep living there would pose a constant risk of Israel itself being led to worship other gods.

Chapters

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940

Our apps

Our apps →

Bible in Stories

The Bible told as a story, with audio and videos.

📱 Get the app

World in Stories

True stories of humanity that sound made up.

App StoreGoogle Play

Feito! Pequenas Vitórias

A light daily routine for people who lose track of the day.

App StoreGoogle Play