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href="../exodus/22-22.htm" title="Exodus 22:22">◄</a> Exodus 22:23 <a href="../exodus/22-24.htm" title="Exodus 22:24">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="topverse">If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;</div><div id="jump">Jump to: <a href="/commentaries/barnes/exodus/22.htm" title="Barnes' Notes">Barnes</a> • <a href="/commentaries/benson/exodus/22.htm" title="Benson Commentary">Benson</a> • <a href="/commentaries/illustrator/exodus/22.htm" title="Biblical Illustrator">BI</a> • <a href="/commentaries/calvin/exodus/22.htm" title="Calvin's Commentaries">Calvin</a> • <a href="/commentaries/cambridge/exodus/22.htm" title="Cambridge Bible">Cambridge</a> • <a href="/commentaries/clarke/exodus/22.htm" title="Clarke's Commentary">Clarke</a> • <a href="/commentaries/darby/exodus/22.htm" title="Darby's Bible Synopsis">Darby</a> • <a href="/commentaries/ellicott/exodus/22.htm" title="Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers">Ellicott</a> • <a href="/commentaries/expositors/exodus/22.htm" title="Expositor's Bible">Expositor's</a> • <a href="/commentaries/edt/exodus/22.htm" title="Expositor's Dictionary">Exp Dct</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gaebelein/exodus/22.htm" title="Gaebelein's Annotated Bible">Gaebelein</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gsb/exodus/22.htm" title="Geneva Study Bible">GSB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gill/exodus/22.htm" title="Gill's Bible Exposition">Gill</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gray/exodus/22.htm" title="Gray's Concise">Gray</a> • <a href="/commentaries/guzik/exodus/22.htm" title="Guzik Bible Commentary">Guzik</a> • <a href="/commentaries/haydock/exodus/22.htm" title="Haydock Catholic Bible Commentary">Haydock</a> • <a href="/commentaries/hastings/exodus/14-15.htm" title="Hastings Great Texts">Hastings</a> • <a href="/commentaries/homiletics/exodus/22.htm" 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href="/commentaries/sco/exodus/22.htm" title="Scofield Reference Notes">SCO</a> • <a href="/commentaries/ttb/exodus/22.htm" title="Through The Bible">TTB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/wes/exodus/22.htm" title="Wesley's Notes">WES</a> • <a href="#tsk" title="Treasury of Scripture Knowledge">TSK</a></div><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="comtype">EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/ellicott/exodus/22.htm">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</a></div>(23) <span class= "bld">If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">If thou afflict them sore, and they cry earnestly unto me. </span>On the transgression of the laws against oppression by the later Israelites, see <a href="/jeremiah/5-28.htm" title="They are waxen fat, they shine: yes, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.">Jeremiah 5:28</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/7-6.htm" title="If you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:">Jeremiah 7:6</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/22-3.htm" title="Thus said the LORD; Execute you judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.">Jeremiah 22:3</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/22-17.htm" title="But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.">Jeremiah 22:17</a>; Zech. 7:20; <a href="/malachi/3-5.htm" title="And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, said the LORD of hosts.">Malachi 3:5</a>; <a href="/matthew/23-14.htm" title="Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore you shall receive the greater damnation.">Matthew 23:14</a>, &c. The sword of the Babylonians and the sword of the Romans avenged the sufferers, according to the prophecy of <a href="/exodus/22-24.htm" title="And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.">Exodus 22:24</a>.<p><a name="mhc" id="mhc"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/mhc/exodus/22.htm">Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary</a></div>22; 1 - 31 Judicial laws. - The people of God should ever be ready to show mildness and mercy, according to the spirit of these laws. We must answer to God, not only for what we do maliciously, but for what we do heedlessly. Therefore, when we have done harm to our neighbour, we should make restitution, though not compelled by law. Let these scriptures lead our souls to remember, that if the grace of God has indeed appeared to us, then it has taught us, and enabled us so to conduct ourselves by its holy power, that denying ungodliness and wordly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, Titus 2:12. And the grace of God teaches us, that as the Lord is our portion, there is enough in him to satisfy all the desires of our souls.<a name="bar" id="bar"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/barnes/exodus/22.htm">Barnes' Notes on the Bible</a></div>Afflict - A word including all cold and contemptuous treatment. See <a href="/deuteronomy/10-18.htm">Deuteronomy 10:18</a>. Contrast the blessing, <a href="/deuteronomy/14-29.htm">Deuteronomy 14:29</a>. <a name="jfb" id="jfb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/jfb/exodus/22.htm">Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary</a></div>6. If fire break out, and catch in thorns—This refers to the common practice in the East of setting fire to the dry grass before the fall of the autumnal rains, which prevents the ravages of vermin, and is considered a good preparation of the ground for the next crop. The very parched state of the herbage and the long droughts of summer, make the kindling of a fire an operation often dangerous, and always requiring caution from its liability to spread rapidly.<p>stacks—or as it is rendered "shocks" (Jud 15:5; Job 5:26), means simply a bundle of loose sheaves.<div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/poole/exodus/22.htm">Matthew Poole's Commentary</a></div> No text from Poole on this verse. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="gil" id="gil"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gill/exodus/22.htm">Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible</a></div>If thou afflict them in any wise,..... In any way, or by any means whatever; their minds, by reproaches, censures, insults, and their bodies by stripes, false imprisonment, &c. and in their substance, by withholding from them what belongs to them, taking what they have, or cheating and defrauding them in any respect; or, "in afflicting afflict them" (e); afflict them much, and continue to do so: <p>and they cry at all unto me; in prayer, as the Targum of Jonathan; or, "in crying cry" (f); cry vehemently, or importunately, and with constancy, or rather, cry ever so little: <p>I will surely hear their cry; the voice of their prayer, as the same Targum; or, "in hearing I will hear" (g); will certainly take notice of their cries, and return an answer to them, by appearing on their side, and avenging their injuries; for God is the Father of the fatherless, and the husband of the widow, and the Judge of them both: the manner of speaking or form of expression is the same in all these clauses, the words being doubled. <p>(e) "affligendo afflixeris", Pagninus, Piscator, Ainsworth, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius. (f) "clamando clamaverit", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator, Ainsworth. (g) "audiendo audiam", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator, Ainsworth. <a name="gsb" id="gsb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gsb/exodus/22.htm">Geneva Study Bible</a></div><span class="cverse2">If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;</span></div></div><div id="centbox"><div class="padcent"><div class="comtype">EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/cambridge/exodus/22.htm">Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges</a></div><span class="bld">23</span>. <span class="ital">If thou afflict</span> <span class="bld">him</span> <span class="ital">in any wise, and</span> <span class="bld">he</span> <span class="ital">cry at all unto me, I will surely hear</span> <span class="bld">his</span> <span class="ital">cry</span>] so the Heb., making it probable that <span class="ital">vv.</span> 21b, 22 (which are moreover distinguished from the context by the plur. <span class="ital">ye</span>), 24 (which will naturally go with <span class="ital">v.</span> 22) are an addition to the original text. It is true, there are not unfrequent cases in poetry, when a class of persons has been spoken of, of their being referred to individually by a sing. pronoun (see G.-K. § 145m; and the passages collected in the writer’s <span class="ital">Jeremiah</span>, p. 362); but this is very unusual in prose: such passages as <a href="/genesis/2-19.htm" title="And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: and whatever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.">Genesis 2:19</a>, <a href="/leviticus/21-7.htm" title="They shall not take a wife that is a whore, or profane; neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband: for he is holy to his God.">Leviticus 21:7</a>; <a href="/leviticus/25-31.htm" title="But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.">Leviticus 25:31</a>, <a href="/deuteronomy/7-3.htm" title="Neither shall you make marriages with them; your daughter you shall not give to his son, nor his daughter shall you take to your son.">Deuteronomy 7:3</a>, <a href="/joshua/24-7.htm" title="And when they cried to the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea on them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and you dwelled in the wilderness a long season.">Joshua 24:7</a>, <a href="/judges/12-5.htm" title="And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said to him, Are you an Ephraimite? If he said, No;">Jdg 12:5</a>; <a href="/judges/21-6.htm" title="And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.">Jdg 21:6</a>, are hardly parallel to the present one.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital">cry</span> … <span class="ital">unto me</span>] cf. <a href="/deuteronomy/15-9.htm" title="Beware that there be not a thought in your wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and your eye be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing; and he cry to the LORD against you, and it be sin to you.">Deuteronomy 15:9</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/24-15.htm" title="At his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it: lest he cry against you to the LORD, and it be sin to you.">Deuteronomy 24:15</a>; also <a href="/james/5-4.htm" title="Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.">James 5:4</a>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">23, 24</span>. If the Israelite does this, Jehovah will treat him with a just retribution.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="pul" id="pul"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/pulpit/exodus/22.htm">Pulpit Commentary</a></div><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 23.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">And they cry at all unto me</span> Rather, "<span class="accented">Surely</span>, if they cry unto me." Compare <a href="/genesis/31-42.htm">Genesis 31:42</a>. Exodus 22:23<a name="kad" id="kad"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/kad/exodus/22.htm">Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament</a></div>The Israelites were not to offer sacrifice to foreign deities; but a foreigner himself they were not only to tolerate, but were not to vex or oppress him, bearing in mind that they also had been foreigners in Egypt (cf. <a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/23-9.htm">Exodus 23:9</a>, and <a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/19-33.htm">Leviticus 19:33-34</a>). - Whilst the foreigner, as having no rights, is thus commended to the kindness of the people through their remembrance of what they themselves had experienced in Egypt, those members of the nation itself who were most in need of protection (viz., widows and orphans) are secured from humiliation by an assurance of the special care and watchfulness of Jehovah, under which such forsaken ones stand, inasmuch as Jehovah Himself would take their troubles upon Himself, and punish their oppressors with just retribution. ענּה to humiliate, includes not only unjust oppression, but every kind of cold and contemptuous treatment. The suffix in אתו (<a href="/exodus/22-23.htm">Exodus 22:23</a>) refers to both אלמנה and יתום, according to the rule that when there are two or more subjects of different genders, the masculine is employed (Ges. 148, 2). The כּי before אם expresses a strong assurance: "yea, if he cries to Me, I will hearken to him" (see Ewald, 330b). "Killing with the sword" points to wars, in which men and fathers of families perish, and their wives and children are made widows and orphans. <div class="vheading2">Links</div><a href="/interlinear/exodus/22-23.htm">Exodus 22:23 Interlinear</a><br /><a href="/texts/exodus/22-23.htm">Exodus 22:23 Parallel Texts</a><br /><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/niv/exodus/22-23.htm">Exodus 22:23 NIV</a><br /><a href="/nlt/exodus/22-23.htm">Exodus 22:23 NLT</a><br /><a href="/esv/exodus/22-23.htm">Exodus 22:23 ESV</a><br /><a href="/nasb/exodus/22-23.htm">Exodus 22:23 NASB</a><br /><a href="/kjv/exodus/22-23.htm">Exodus 22:23 KJV</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="http://bibleapps.com/exodus/22-23.htm">Exodus 22:23 Bible Apps</a><br /><a href="/exodus/22-23.htm">Exodus 22:23 Parallel</a><br /><a href="http://bibliaparalela.com/exodus/22-23.htm">Exodus 22:23 Biblia Paralela</a><br /><a href="http://holybible.com.cn/exodus/22-23.htm">Exodus 22:23 Chinese Bible</a><br /><a href="http://saintebible.com/exodus/22-23.htm">Exodus 22:23 French Bible</a><br /><a href="http://bibeltext.com/exodus/22-23.htm">Exodus 22:23 German Bible</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/">Bible Hub</a><br /></div></div></td></tr></table></div><div id="mdd"><div align="center"><div class="bot2"><table align="center" width="100%"><tr><td align="center"><div align="center"> <script id="3d27ed63fc4348d5b062c4527ae09445"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=51ce25d5-1a8c-424a-8695-4bd48c750f35&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script> <script id="b817b7107f1d4a7997da1b3c33457e03"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=cb0edd8b-b416-47eb-8c6d-3cc96561f7e8&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-2'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-0' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-3'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-1' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div align="center" id='div-gpt-ad-1531425649696-0'> </div><br /><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:200px;height:200px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-3753401421161123" data-ad-slot="3592799687"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /><br /> </div> <div id="left"><a href="../exodus/22-22.htm" onmouseover='lft.src="/leftgif.png"' onmouseout='lft.src="/left.png"' title="Exodus 22:22"><img src="/left.png" name="lft" border="0" alt="Exodus 22:22" /></a></div><div id="right"><a href="../exodus/22-24.htm" onmouseover='rght.src="/rightgif.png"' onmouseout='rght.src="/right.png"' title="Exodus 22:24"><img src="/right.png" name="rght" border="0" alt="Exodus 22:24" /></a></div><div id="botleft"><a href="#" onmouseover='botleft.src="/botleftgif.png"' onmouseout='botleft.src="/botleft.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botleft.png" name="botleft" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="botright"><a href="#" onmouseover='botright.src="/botrightgif.png"' onmouseout='botright.src="/botright.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botright.png" name="botright" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div> <div id="bot"><iframe width="100%" height="1500" scrolling="no" src="/botmenubhnew2.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td></tr></table></div></body></html>