Exodus 23: Laws about justice, rest and feasts, and the angel who goes ahead

In plain English: "You are not to spread a false report. Do not join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness.

In plain English: "You are not to follow a crowd to do evil. You are not to give testimony in a lawsuit by siding with the crowd to twist justice.

In plain English: You are not to favor a poor man in his lawsuit.

The Hebrew word: "Favor" is hadar. The dictionary gives it as "to swell up (literally or figuratively, active or passive); by implication, to favor or honour, be high or proud". It is in only this verse of Exodus.

Good to know: Leviticus 19:15 uses the same verb: "You shall not be partial to the poor, nor show favoritism to the great." There the verb is used for the great. Verse 6 of this chapter says not to deny justice to the needy in their lawsuits.

In plain English: "If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey wandering off, you are surely to bring it back to him.

In plain English: If you see the donkey of someone who hates you lying down under its load, do not leave it. You are surely to help him with it.

In plain English: "You are not to deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.

In plain English: "Keep far from a false charge. Do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not declare the wicked righteous (justify the wicked).

In plain English: "You are to take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see clearly and twists the words of the righteous.

In plain English: "You are not to oppress an alien. You know the heart (literally: the soul) of an alien, since you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

The Hebrew word: "Heart" is nephesh, which also means soul or life. The dictionary gives it as "properly, a breathing creature, i.e. animal of (abstractly) vitality".

How it is translated: In Exodus this Bible says "soul" or "souls" for nephesh in 8 of the 15 verses that use it, and "life" in 3. It says "heart" in only 1: this verse.

Good to know: "Alien" is the word explained at Exodus 22:21, which gives the same reason: you were aliens in Egypt.

In plain English: "For six years you are to sow your land and gather in what it produces,

In plain English: but in the seventh year you are to let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat. What they leave, the wild animals are to eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

In plain English: "Six days you are to do your work, and on the seventh day you are to rest, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the alien may be refreshed.

The Hebrew word: "Refreshed" is naphash. The dictionary gives it as "to breathe; passively, to be breathed upon, i.e. (figuratively) refreshed (as if by a current of air)".

How it is translated: This word is in only 3 verses of the Bible, and this Bible says "refreshed" in all 3.

Good to know: The other two are Exodus 31:17, where Yahweh rested on the seventh day "and was refreshed", and 2 Samuel 16:14, where the king "refreshed himself" after arriving weary.

In plain English: "Be careful to do all that I have said to you. Do not call on (or: mention) the name of other gods or let them be heard from your mouth.

In plain English: "You are to keep a feast to me three times in the year.

In plain English: You are to keep the feast of unleavened bread (bread made without yeast). For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

In plain English: You are also to keep the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your work, which you sow in the field, and the feast of ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your work out of the field.

In plain English: Three times in the year all your males are to appear before the Lord Yahweh.

Good to know: In this speech Yahweh sometimes names himself in the third person. Here the males are to appear "before the Lord Yahweh". The same happens in verse 19 ("the house of Yahweh your God") and verse 25 ("serve Yahweh your God, and he will bless your bread").

In plain English: "You are not to offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread (bread made with yeast). The fat of my feast is not to stay overnight until the morning.

In plain English: You are to bring the first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of Yahweh your God. "You are not to boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

Good to know: The Hebrew says "the house of Yahweh your God". Yahweh gives the plan for his dwelling place in chapters 25 to 31, and it is built in chapters 36 to 40. The text does not say what house is meant here. The same sentences, about the first fruits and the young goat, are in Exodus 34:26.

Church tradition: Jewish tradition reads the command about the young goat, which the Bible gives three times (here, Exodus 34:26 and Deuteronomy 14:21), as the basis for keeping meat and milk apart: they are not cooked or eaten together. The text itself says only that a young goat is not to be boiled in its mother's milk, and it gives no reason.

In plain English: "Look, I am sending an angel ahead of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.

The Hebrew word: "Angel" is malak. The dictionary gives it as "a messenger; specifically, of God, i.e. an angel (also a prophet, priest or teacher)".

How it is translated: Over the whole Bible this Bible says "angel" or "angels" in 101 of the 196 verses that use the word, and "messenger" or "messengers" in 92. In Exodus it is in 6 verses, and it says "angel" in all 6.

In plain English: Pay attention to him and listen to his voice. Do not provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience, for my name is in him.

Good to know: Yahweh says, "my name is in him". The text does not say who the angel is. Verse 23 calls him "my angel". Yahweh speaks of the angel again in Exodus 32:34 ("my angel shall go before you") and 33:2 ("I will send an angel before you"). Exodus 14:19 speaks of "the angel of God" who went before the camp.

Church tradition: Churches read this angel in different ways. Some read him as a messenger whom Yahweh sends, with Yahweh's name in him. Some read him as Christ appearing before he was born as a man. The text itself says only what Yahweh says here.

In plain English: But if you really listen to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

In plain English: For my angel will go ahead of you and bring you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will cut them off.

In plain English: You are not to bow down to their gods or serve them or do as they do. You are to overthrow them completely and break their pillars to pieces.

In plain English: You are to serve Yahweh your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you.

In plain English: No one will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days.

In plain English: I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion all the people you come to, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

In plain English: I will send the hornet ahead of you, and it will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.

The Hebrew word: "Hornet" is tsirah. The dictionary gives it as "a wasp (as stinging)".

How it is translated: This word is in only 3 verses of the Bible, and this Bible says "hornet" in all 3.

Good to know: The other two are Deuteronomy 7:20 ("Yahweh your God will send the hornet among them") and Joshua 24:12 ("I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you"). None of the three verses says more about the hornet.

In plain English: I will not drive them out from before you in one year, or the land would become desolate and the animals of the field would multiply against you.

In plain English: Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and inherit the land.

In plain English: I will set your border from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River. For I will hand over to you the people who live in the land, and you are to drive them out before you.

The Hebrew words: "Red Sea" is yam suf, "sea of reeds", as in Exodus 13:18.

Good to know: The verse does not name "the River". Genesis 15:18 gives a border "from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates".

In plain English: You are to make no covenant with them or with their gods.

In plain English: They are not to live in your land, or they will make you sin against me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you."