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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Exodus 23 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/exodus/23.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/exodus/23.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/exodus/23-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../exodus/">Exodus</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../exodus/22.htm" title="Exodus 22">◄</a> Exodus 23 <a href="../exodus/24.htm" title="Exodus 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="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-1.htm">Exodus 23:1</a></div><div class="verse">Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.</div>XXIII.</span><p>(1-19) The “miscellaneous laws” are here continued. From <a href="/exodus/23-1.htm" title="You shall not raise a false report: put not your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.">Exodus 23:1</a> to <a href="/exodus/23-9.htm" title="Also you shall not oppress a stranger: for you know the heart of a stranger, seeing you were strangers in the land of Egypt.">Exodus 23:9</a> no kind of sequence in the laws can be traced; from <a href="/exodus/23-10.htm" title="And six years you shall sow your land, and shall gather in the fruits thereof:">Exodus 23:10</a> to the first clause of <a href="/exodus/23-19.htm" title="The first of the first fruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.">Exodus 23:19</a> there is, on the contrary, a certain connection, since the laws enunciated are concerned with ceremonial observance. The closing law, however, is not ceremonial, but the prohibition of a practice considered to be cruel. On the whole, it may be said that The Book of the Covenant maintains its unsystematic character to the close. (See Note on <a href="/context/exodus/20-22.htm" title="And the LORD said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.">Exodus 20:22-26</a>.)<p>(1) Thou shalt not raise a false report.—The LXX. and Vulg. Translate, “Thou shalt not <span class= "ital">receive </span>a false report”—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>give it credit, accept it as true, and act upon it. This meaning accords well with the succeeding clause, which forbids our giving support to the false testimony of others. In both clauses the principle of the ninth commandment is extended from principals to accessories.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-2.htm">Exodus 23:2</a></div><div class="verse">Thou shalt not follow a multitude to <i>do</i> evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest <i>judgment</i>:</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil . . . —</span>It is perhaps true that the offence especially condemned is joining with a majority in an unrighteous judgment; but the words of the precept extend much further than this, and forbid our being carried away by numbers or popularity in any case. <span class= "ital">Vox populi vox Dei </span>is a favourite maxim with many, but Scripture nowhere sanctions it. Job boasts that he did not fear a great multitude (<a href="/job/31-34.htm" title="Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?">Job 31:34</a>). David says that the “ten thousands of the people set themselves against him round about” (<a href="/psalms/3-6.htm" title="I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about.">Psalm 3:6</a>). The prophets had always the multitude against them. “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way,” said our blessed Lord, “which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” But ‘wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat<span class= "ital">” </span><a href="/context/matthew/7-13.htm" title="Enter you in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:">Matthew 7:13-14</a>). We must be prepared to face unpopularity if we would walk in accordance with the Law of God.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-3.htm">Exodus 23:3</a></div><div class="verse">Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause.</span>—We must not “pervert judgment” either in favour of the rich or of the poor. Justice must hold her scales even, and be proof equally against a paltry fear of the rich and a weak compassion for the indigent. The cause alone is to be considered, not the persons. (Comp. <a href="/leviticus/19-15.htm" title="You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: you shall not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.">Leviticus 19:15</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-4.htm">Exodus 23:4</a></div><div class="verse">If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Thine enemy’s ox.</span>—The general duty of stopping stray animals and restoring them to friendly owners, expressly taught in <a href="/context/deuteronomy/22-1.htm" title="You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep go astray, and hide yourself from them: you shall in any case bring them again to your brother.">Deuteronomy 22:1-3</a>, is here implied as if admitted on all hands. The legislator extends this duty to cases where the owner is our personal enemy. It was not generally recognised in antiquity that men’s enemies had any claims upon them. Cicero, indeed, says—“Sunt autem quædam officia etiam adversus eos servanda, a quibus injuriam aceeperis” (<span class= "ital">De Off. i.</span> 11); but he stops short of enjoining active benevolence. Here and in <a href="/exodus/23-5.htm" title="If you see the ass of him that hates you lying under his burden, and would forbear to help him, you shall surely help with him.">Exodus 23:5</a> we have a sort of anticipation of Christianity—active kindness to an enemy being required, even when it costs us some trouble. The principle of friendliness is involved—the germ which in Christianity blossoms out into the precept, “Love your enemies.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-5.htm">Exodus 23:5</a></div><div class="verse">If 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.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee . . . —</span>The sense is clear, but the words are greatly disputed. If a man sees his enemy’s ass prostrate under its burthen, he is to help to raise it up. In this case he owes a double duty—(1) to his enemy, and (2) to the suffering animal. Geddes’ emendation of <span class= "ital">’azar </span>for ’<span class= "ital">azab, </span>in all the three places where the verb occurs, is the simplest and best of those suggested. The passage would then run: “If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burthen, and wouldest forbear to help it, thou shalt surely help with him”—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the owner.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-6.htm">Exodus 23:6</a></div><div class="verse">Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor.</span>—If we are not to favour the poor man in a court of justice on account of his poverty (<a href="/exodus/23-3.htm" title="Neither shall you countenance a poor man in his cause.">Exodus 23:3</a>), much less are we to treat him with disfavour. (Comp. <a href="/deuteronomy/24-17.htm" title="You shall not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow's raiment to pledge:">Deuteronomy 24:17</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/27-19.htm" title="Cursed be he that perverts the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.">Deuteronomy 27:19</a>; <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>, &c.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-7.htm">Exodus 23:7</a></div><div class="verse">Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">Keep thee far from a false matter.</span>—A false <span class= "ital">accusation </span>seems to be intended. If we make one it may result in an innocent man’s death, and we shall be murderers; God will then assuredly hold us guilty.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-8.htm">Exodus 23:8</a></div><div class="verse">And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Thou shalt take no gift</span>—i.e., no bribe. Corruption has been always rife in the East, and the pure administration of justice is almost unknown there. Signal punishments by wise rulers have sometimes checked the inveterate evil (Herod. v. 25). But it recurs again and again—“Naturam expellas furca, tarnen usque recurret.” According to Josephus (<span class= "ital">contr. Ap. ii.</span> 27), the Jewish law punished with death the judge who took a bribe. But Hebrew judges seem practically to have been no better than Oriental judges generally. (See <a href="/1_samuel/8-3.htm" title="And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.">1Samuel 8:3</a>; <a href="/psalms/26-10.htm" title="In whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes.">Psalm 26:10</a>; <a href="/proverbs/17-23.htm" title="A wicked man takes a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment.">Proverbs 17:23</a>; <a href="/isaiah/1-23.htm" title="Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loves gifts, and follows after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.">Isaiah 1:23</a>; <a href="/isaiah/5-23.htm" title="Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!">Isaiah 5:23</a>; <a href="/context/micah/3-9.htm" title="Hear this, I pray you, you heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.">Micah 3:9-11</a>, &c.) The corrupt Administration of justice was one of the crying evils which provoked God’s judgments against His people, and led, in the first instance, to the Babylonian captivity, and afterwards to the Roman conquest.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-9.htm">Exodus 23:9</a></div><div class="verse">Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Thou shalt not oppress a stranger.</span>—See Note on <a href="/exodus/22-21.htm" title="You shall neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.">Exodus 22:21</a>. The repetition of the law indicates the strong inclination of the Hebrew people to ill-use strangers, and the anxiety of the legislator to check their inclination.<p><span class= "bld"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-10.htm">Exodus 23:10</a></div><div class="verse">And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:</div>CEREMONIAL LAWS.</span><p>(10, 11) <span class= "bld">Six years . . . the seventh year</span>.—The Sabbatical year which is here commanded was an institution wholly unknown to any nation but the Hebrews. It is most extraordinary that any legislator should have been able to induce a people to accept such a law. <span class= "ital">Prima facie, </span>it seemed, by forbidding productive industry during one year in seven, to diminish the wealth of the nation by one-seventh. But it is questionable whether, under a primitive agricultural system, when rotation of crops was unknown, the lying of the land fallow during one year in seven would not have been an economical benefit. There was no prohibition on labour other than in cultivation. The clearing away of weeds and thorns and stones was allowed, and may have been practised. After an early harvest of the self-sown crop, the greater part of the year may have been spent in this kind of industry. Still the enactment was no doubt unpopular: it checked the regular course of agriculture, and seemed to rob landowners of one-seventh of their natural gains. Accordingly, we find that it was very irregularly observed. Between the Exodus and the Captivity it had apparently been neglected seventy times (<a href="/2_chronicles/36-21.htm" title="To fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfill three score and ten years.">2Chronicles 36:21</a>), or more often than it had been kept. After the Captivity, however, the observance became regular, and classical writers notice the custom as one existing in their day (Tacit. <span class= "ital">Hist. v.</span> 4). Julius Cæsar permitted it, and excused the Jews from paying tribute in the seventh year on its account (Joseph., <span class= "ital">Ant Jud. </span>xiv. 10, § 6). The object of the law was threefold—(1) to test obedience; (2) to give an advantage to the poor and needy, to whom the crop of the seventh year belonged (<a href="/exodus/23-11.htm" title="But the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie still; that the poor of your people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner you shall deal with your vineyard, and with your olive grove.">Exodus 23:11</a>); and (3) to allow an opportunity, once in seven years, for prolonged communion with God and increased religious observances. (See <a href="/context/deuteronomy/31-10.htm" title="And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,">Deuteronomy 31:10-13</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-11.htm">Exodus 23:11</a></div><div class="verse">But the seventh <i>year</i> 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, <i>and</i> with thy oliveyard.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">That the poor of thy people may eat.</span>—For fuller particulars see <a href="/context/leviticus/25-1.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Moses in mount Sinai, saying,">Leviticus 25:1-7</a>. The owner was to have no larger part of the seventh year’s produce than any one else. He was to take his share with the hireling, the stranger, and even the cattle, which during this year were to browse where they pleased.<p><span class= "bld">Thy vineyard . . . Thy oliveyard.</span>—These would bear a full average produce, and the boon to the poor man would in these respects have been very considerable. Corn, wine, and oil were the staple commodities of Palestine (<a href="/deuteronomy/8-8.htm" title="A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;">Deuteronomy 8:8</a>; <a href="/2_kings/18-32.htm" title="Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that you may live, and not die: and listen not to Hezekiah, when he persuades you, saying, The LORD will deliver us.">2Kings 18:32</a>, &c.).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-12.htm">Exodus 23:12</a></div><div class="verse">Six 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.</div>(12) The law of the weekly Sabbath is here repeated in conjunction with that of the Sabbatical year, to mark the intimate connection between the two, which were parts of one and the same system—a system which culminated in the Jubilee year (<a href="/context/leviticus/25-8.htm" title="And you shall number seven sabbaths of years to you, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty and nine years.">Leviticus 25:8-13</a>). Nothing is added to the requirements of the fourth commandment; but the merciful intention of the Sabbath day is more fully brought out—it is to be kept <span class= "ital">in order that </span>the cattle may rest, and the slave and stranger may be refreshed.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-13.htm">Exodus 23:13</a></div><div class="verse">And in all <i>things</i> 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.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">Be circumspect.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">take heed. </span>The verb used is a very common one.<p><span class= "bld">Make no mention of the name of other gods.</span>—The Jewish commentators understand <span class= "ital">swearing </span>by the name of other gods to be the thing here forbidden, and so the Vulg., <span class= "ital">“per nomen exterorum deorum non jurabitis.” </span>But the words used reach far beyond this. Contempt for the “gods of the nations” was to be shown by ignoring their very names. They were not to be spoken of, unless by preachers in the way of warning, or by historians when the facts of history could not be otherwise set forth. Moses himself mentions Baal (<a href="/numbers/22-41.htm" title="And it came to pass on the morrow, that Balak took Balaam, and brought him up into the high places of Baal, that there he might see the utmost part of the people.">Numbers 22:41</a>), Baal-peor (<a href="/numbers/25-3.htm" title="And Israel joined himself to Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.">Numbers 25:3</a>; <a href="/numbers/25-5.htm" title="And Moses said to the judges of Israel, Slay you every one his men that were joined to Baalpeor.">Numbers 25:5</a>), Chemosh (<a href="/numbers/21-29.htm" title="Woe to you, Moab! you are undone, O people of Chemosh: he has given his sons that escaped, and his daughters, into captivity to Sihon king of the Amorites.">Numbers 21:29</a>), and Moloch (<a href="/context/leviticus/20-2.htm" title="Again, you shall say to the children of Israel, Whoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that gives any of his seed to Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.">Leviticus 20:2-5</a>; <a href="/leviticus/23-21.htm" title="And you shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation to you: you shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.">Leviticus 23:21</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-14.htm">Exodus 23:14</a></div><div class="verse">Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.</div>(14-17) The first great festival—the Passover festival—had been already instituted (<a href="/context/exodus/12-3.htm" title="Speak you to all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:">Exodus 12:3-20</a>; <a href="/context/exodus/13-3.htm" title="And Moses said to the people, Remember this day, in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten.">Exodus 13:3-10</a>). It pleased the Divine Legislator at this time to add to that festival two others, and to make all three equally obligatory. There is some reason to suppose that, in germ, the “feast of harvest” and the “feast of ingathering” already existed. All nations, from the earliest time to which history reaches back, had festival seasons of a religious character; and no seasons are more suitable for such festivities than the conclusion of the grain-harvest, and the final completion of the entire harvest of the year. At any rate, whatever the previous practice, these three festival-seasons were now laid down as essential parts of the Law, and continued—supplemented by two others—<span class= "ital">the </span>national festivals so long as Israel was a nation. In other countries such seasons were more common. Herodotus says that the Egyptians had six great yearly festival-times (ii. 59); and in Greece and Rome there was never a month without some notable religious festivity. Such institutions exerted a political as well as a religious influence, and helped towards national unity. This was more especially the case when, as in the present instance, they were expressly made gatherings of the whole nation to a single centre. What the great Greek panegyries, Olympic, Pythian, &c., were to Hellas, that the three great annual gatherings to the place where God had fixed His name were to Israel—a means of drawing closer the national bond, and counteracting those separatist tendencies which a nation split into tribes almost necessarily developed.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-15.htm">Exodus 23:15</a></div><div class="verse">Thou 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:)</div>(15) <span class= "bld">The feast of unleavened bread.</span>—See the Notes on <a href="/context/exodus/12-15.htm" title="Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.">Exodus 12:15-20</a>.<p><span class= "bld">In the time appointed of the month Abib.</span>—From the 14th day of the month Abib (or Nisan) to the 21st day. (See Exo. Xii. 18, 13:4-7.)<p><span class= "bld">None shall appear before me empty.</span>—Viewed religiously, the festivals were annual national thanks-givings for mercies received, both natural and miraculous—the first for the commencement of harvest and the deliverance out of Egypt; the second for the completion of the grain-harvest and the passage of the Red Sea; the third for the final gathering in of the fruits and the many mercies of the wilderness. At such seasons we must not “appear before God empty,” we must give Him not only “the salves of our lips,” but some substantial acknowledgment of His goodness towards us. The law here laid down with respect to the first feast is afterwards extended to the other two (<a href="/deuteronomy/16-16.htm" title="Three times in a year shall all your males appear before the LORD your God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:">Deuteronomy 16:16</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-16.htm">Exodus 23:16</a></div><div class="verse">And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, <i>which is</i> in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">The feast of harvest.</span>—It was calculated that the grain-harvest would be completed fifty days after it had begun. On this fiftieth day (Pentecost) the second festival was to commence by the offering of two loaves made of the new wheat just gathered in. On the other offerings commanded, see <a href="/context/leviticus/23-18.htm" title="And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering to the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet smell to the LORD.">Leviticus 23:18-20</a>. The Law limited the feast to a single day—the “day of Pentecost”—but in practice it was early extended to two days, in order to cover a possible miscalculation as to the exact time.<p><span class= "bld">The feast of ingathering.</span>—Elsewhere commonly called “the feast of tabernacles” (<a href="/leviticus/23-34.htm" title="Speak to the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days to the LORD.">Leviticus 23:34</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/16-13.htm" title="You shall observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that you have gathered in your corn and your wine:">Deuteronomy 16:13</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/16-16.htm" title="Three times in a year shall all your males appear before the LORD your God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:">Deuteronomy 16:16</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/31-10.htm" title="And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,">Deuteronomy 31:10</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/8-13.htm" title="Even after a certain rate every day, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts, three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.">2Chronicles 8:13</a>; <a href="/ezra/3-4.htm" title="They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required;">Ezra 3:4</a>; <a href="/context/zechariah/14-16.htm" title="And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.">Zechariah 14:16-19</a>, &c.). Like the feast of unleavened bread, this lasted for a week. It corresponded to a certain extent with modern “harvest-homes,” but was more prolonged and of a more distinctly religious character. The time fixed for it was the week commencing with the fifteenth and terminating with the twenty-first of the month Tisri, corresponding to our October. The vintage and the olive-harvest had by that time been completed, and thanks were given for God’s bounties through the whole year. At the same time the sojourn in the wilderness was commemorated; and as a memorial of that time those who attended the feast dwelt during its continuance in booths made of branches of trees. (See <a href="/leviticus/23-40.htm" title="And you shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.">Leviticus 23:40</a><span class= "ital">; </span><a href="/context/nehemiah/8-14.htm" title="And they found written in the law which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month:">Nehemiah 8:14-17</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-17.htm">Exodus 23:17</a></div><div class="verse">Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">Three times in the year.</span>—The terms of this verse, as compared with <a href="/exodus/23-14.htm" title="Three times you shall keep a feast to me in the year.">Exodus 23:14</a>, limit the observance of the three festivals to the males, but add the important requirement of personal attendance at a given place. By “all thy males” we must understand all of full age and not incapacitated by infirmity or illness.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-18.htm">Exodus 23:18</a></div><div class="verse">Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread.</span>—Some regard this prohibition as extending to all sacrifices; but the majority of commentators limit it to the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb, which was the only sacrifice as yet expressly instituted by Jehovah. According to modern Jewish notions, leavened bread is permissible at the other feasts; at Pentecost it was commanded (<a href="/leviticus/23-17.htm" title="You shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals; they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven; they are the first fruits to the LORD.">Leviticus 23:17</a>).<p><span class= "bld">The fat of my sacrifice.</span>—Rather (as in the Margin), <span class= "ital">the fat of my feast. </span>The fat of the Paschal lambs was burnt on the altar with incense the same evening. Thus the whole lamb was consumed before the morning. As the Paschal lamb is <span class= "greekheb">καὶ ἐξοχήν</span>, “<span class= "ital">my </span>sacrifice,” so the Passover is “<span class= "ital">my </span>feast.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-19.htm">Exodus 23:19</a></div><div class="verse">The 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.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">The first of the firstfruits</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the <span class= "ital">very </span>first that ripen. There was a natural tendency to “delay” the offering (<a href="/exodus/22-29.htm" title="You shall not delay to offer the first of your ripe fruits, and of your liquors: the firstborn of your sons shall you give to me.">Exodus 22:29</a>) until a considerable part of the harvest had been got in. True gratitude makes a return for benefits received as soon as it, can. “<span class= "ital">Bis dat qui cito dat.”</span><p><span class= "bld">The house of the Lord. </span>Comp. <a href="/exodus/34-26.htm" title="The first of the first fruits of your land you shall bring to the house of the LORD your God. You shall not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.">Exodus 34:26</a> and <a href="/deuteronomy/23-18.htm" title="You shall not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD your God for any vow: for even both these are abomination to the LORD your God.">Deuteronomy 23:18</a>. It is known to Moses that the “place which God will choose to put his name there” is to be a “house,” or “temple.”<p><span class= "bld">Thou shalt not seethe a kid.</span>—A fanciful exegesis connects the four precepts of <a href="/context/exodus/23-18.htm" title="You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.">Exodus 23:18-19</a> with the three feasts—the two of <a href="/exodus/23-18.htm" title="You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.">Exodus 23:18</a> with the Paschal festival, that concerning firstfruits in <a href="/exodus/23-19.htm" title="The first of the first fruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.">Exodus 23:19</a> with the feast of ingathering, and this concerning kids with the feast of tabernacles. To support this theory it is suggested that the command has reference to a superstitious practice customary at the close of the harvest—a kid being then boiled in its mother’s milk with magic rites, and the milk used to sprinkle plantations, fields, and gardens, in order to render them more productive the next year. But <a href="/deuteronomy/14-21.htm" title="You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself: you shall give it to the stranger that is in your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to an alien: for you are an holy people to the LORD your God. You shall not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.">Deuteronomy 14:21</a>, which attaches the precept to a list of unclean meats, is sufficient to show that the kid spoken of was boiled to be eaten. The best explanation of the passage is that of Bochart (<span class= "ital">Hierozoic. </span>pt. 1, bk. 2, Exo. 52), that there was a sort of cruelty in making the milk of the mother, intended for the kid’s sustenance, the means of its destruction.<p><span class= "bld"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-20.htm">Exodus 23:20</a></div><div class="verse">Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.</div>THE PROMISES OF GOD TO ISRAEL, IF THE COVENANT IS KEPT.</span><p>(20-33) The Book of the Covenant terminates, very appropriately, with a series of promises. God is “the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” He chooses to “reward men after their works,” and to set before them “the recompense of the reward.” He “knows whereof we are made,” and by what motives we are influenced. Self-interest, the desire of our own good, is one of the strongest of them. If Israel will keep His covenant, they will enjoy the following blessings :—(1) The guidance and protection of His angel till Canaan is reached; (2) God’s help against their adversaries, who will, little by little, be driven out; (3) the ultimate possession of the entire country between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea on the one hand, the Desert and the Euphrates on the other; (4) a blessing upon their flocks and herds, which shall neither be barren nor cast their young; and (5) a blessing upon themselves, whereby they will escape sickness and enjoy a long term of life. All these advantages, however, are conditional upon obedience, and may be forfeited.<p>(20) <span class= "bld">I send an Angel before thee.</span>—Kalisch considers Moses to have been the “angel” or “messenger;” others understand one of the created angelic host. But most commentators see in the promise the first mention of the “Angel of the Covenant,” who is reasonably identified with the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Eternal Son and Word of God. When the promise is retracted on account of the sin of the golden calf, it is in the words, “<span class= "ital">I </span>will not go up with thee” (<a href="/exodus/33-3.htm" title="To a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the middle of you; for you are a stiff necked people: lest I consume you in the way.">Exodus 33:3</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-21.htm">Exodus 23:21</a></div><div class="verse">Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name <i>is</i> in him.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">My name is in him.</span>—God and His Name are in Scripture almost convertible terms. He is never said to set His Name in a man.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-22.htm">Exodus 23:22</a></div><div class="verse">But 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.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">An adversary unto thine adversaries.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">an afflictor of thy afflictors.</span><span class= "bld"><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-23.htm">Exodus 23:23</a></div><div class="verse">For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, <i>and</i> the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">I will cut them off.</span>—Or, <span class= "ital">cut them down—i.e., </span>make them cease to be nations, not exterminate them utterly. Jebusites, Hittites, and others continued to inhabit Canaan, and were probably absorbed ultimately into the Hebrew population, having become full proselytes.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-24.htm">Exodus 23:24</a></div><div class="verse">Thou 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.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">Nor do after their works.</span>—The Canaanitish nations were not merely idolaters, they were corrupt, profligate, and depraved. All the abominations mentioned in <a href="/context/leviticus/18-6.htm" title="None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD.">Leviticus 18:6-23</a> were practised widely among them before they were dispossessed of their territory (<a href="/context/leviticus/18-24.htm" title="Defile not you yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:">Leviticus 18:24-30</a>). No doubt the idolatry and the profligacy were closely connected, as among idolatrous nations generally; but it was for their profligacy rather than their idolatry that they were driven out. Thus it was necessary to warn Israel against both.<p><span class= "bld">Thou shalt . . . quite break down their images.</span>—Conquerors generally preserved the idols of the conquered nations as trophies of victory; to do so was forbidden to the Israelites. Idolatry had such a powerful and subtle attraction for them, that there was danger of their being seduced into it unless the entire apparatus of the idol-worship were destroyed and made away with. Hence the present injunctions, and others similar to them. (Comp. <a href="/exodus/34-13.htm" title="But you shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:">Exodus 34:13</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/7-5.htm" title="But thus shall you deal with them; you shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.">Deuteronomy 7:5</a>; &c.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-25.htm">Exodus 23:25</a></div><div class="verse">And 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.</div>(25) <span class= "bld">He shall bless thy bread, and thy water</span>—i.e., all the food, whether meat or drink, on which they subsisted. It is God’s blessing which makes food healthful to us.<p><span class= "bld">Take sickness away.</span>—Half the sicknesses from which men suffer are directly caused by sin, and would disappear if men led godly, righteous, and sober lives. Others, as plague and pestilence, are scourges sent by God to punish those who have offended Him. If Israel had walked in God’s ways, He would have preserved them from sicknesses of <span class= "ital">all </span>kinds by a miraculous interposition. (Comp. <a href="/deuteronomy/7-15.htm" title="And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, on you; but will lay them on all them that hate you.">Deuteronomy 7:15</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-26.htm">Exodus 23:26</a></div><div class="verse">There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.</div>(26) <span class= "bld">There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren.</span>—Abortions, untimely births, and barrenness, when they exceeded a certain average amount, were always reckoned in the ancient world among the signs of God’s disfavour, and special expiatory rites were devised for checking them. Conversely, when such misfortunes fell short of the ordinary average, God’s favour was presumed. The promises here made confirm man’s instinctive feeling.<p><span class= "bld">The number of thy days I will fulfil.</span>—Comp. <a href="/exodus/20-12.htm" title="Honor your father and your mother: that your days may be long on the land which the LORD your God gives you.">Exodus 20:12</a>. Long life is always regarded in Scripture as a blessing. (Comp. <a href="/psalms/55-23.htm" title="But you, O God, shall bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in you.">Psalm 55:23</a>; <a href="/psalms/90-10.htm" title="The days of our years are three score years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.">Psalm 90:10</a>; <a href="/job/5-26.htm" title="You shall come to your grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn comes in in his season.">Job 5:26</a>; <a href="/context/job/42-16.htm" title="After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations.">Job 42:16-17</a>; <a href="/1_kings/3-11.htm" title="And God said to him, Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself long life; neither have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies; but have asked for yourself understanding to discern judgment;">1Kings 3:11</a>; <a href="/isaiah/65-20.htm" title="There shall be no more there an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.">Isaiah 65:20</a>; <a href="/ephesians/6-3.htm" title="That it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.">Ephesians 6:3</a>, &c.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-28.htm">Exodus 23:28</a></div><div class="verse">And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.</div>(28) <span class= "bld">I will send hornets.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">the hornet. </span>Comp. <a href="/joshua/24-12.htm" title="And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with your sword, nor with your bow.">Joshua 24:12</a>, where “the hornet” is said to have been sent. No doubt hornets might be so numerous as to become an intolerable plague, and induce a nation to quit its country and seek another (see Bochart, <span class= "ital">Hierozoic. </span>iv. 13). But as we have no historical account of the kind in connection with the Canaanite races, the expression here used is scarcely to be taken literally. Probably the Egyptians are the hornets intended. It was they who, under Rameses III., broke the power of the Hittites and other nations of Palestine, while the Israelites were sojourners in the wilderness. Possibly the term was chosen in reference to the hieroglyphic sign for “king” in Egypt, which was the figure of a bee or wasp. The author of the Book of Wisdom seems, however, to have understood the expression literally (<a href="//apocrypha.org/wisdom_of_solomon/12-8.htm" title="Nevertheless even those thou sparedst as men, and didst send wasps, forerunners of thine host, to destroy them by little and little.">Wisdom Of Solomon 12:8-9</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-29.htm">Exodus 23:29</a></div><div class="verse">I 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.</div>(29) <span class= "bld">The beast of the field.</span>—Comp. <a href="/context/2_kings/17-25.htm" title="And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew some of them.">2Kings 17:25-26</a>, where we find that this result followed the deportation of the Samaritans by the Assyrians.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-31.htm">Exodus 23:31</a></div><div class="verse">And 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.</div>(31) <span class= "bld">Thy bounds.</span>—Those whose highest notion of prophecy identifies it with advanced human foresight naturally object to Moses having foretold the vast extent of empire which did not take place till the days of David and Solomon. It is impossible, however, to understand this passage in any other way than as an assignment to Israel of the entire tract between the Desert, or “Wilderness of the Wanderings,” and the Euphrates on the one hand, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea on the other. “The River” (<span class= "ital">han-nahar</span>) has no other meaning in the Pentateuch than “the Euphrates.” And this was exactly the extent to which the dominions of Israel reached under Solomon, as we see from the description in Kings and Chronicles (<a href="/1_kings/4-21.htm" title="And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt: they brought presents, and served Solomon all the days of his life.">1Kings 4:21</a>; <a href="/1_kings/4-24.htm" title="For he had dominion over all the region on this side the river, from Tiphsah even to Azzah, over all the kings on this side the river: and he had peace on all sides round about him.">1Kings 4:24</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/9-26.htm" title="And he reigned over all the kings from the river even to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt.">2Chronicles 9:26</a>). It had, according to Moses (<a href="/genesis/15-18.htm" title="In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:">Genesis 15:18</a>), been already indicated with tolerable precision in the original promise made to Abraham.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-32.htm">Exodus 23:32</a></div><div class="verse">Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.</div>(32) <span class= "bld">Thou shalt make no covenant with them</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>no treaty of peace; no arrangement by which one part of the land shall be thine and another theirs. (Comp. <a href="/exodus/34-12.htm" title="Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you go, lest it be for a snare in the middle of you:">Exodus 34:12</a>.)<span class= "bld"><p>Nor with their gods.</span>—It was customary at the time for treaties between nations to contain an acknowledgment by each of the other’s gods. (See the treaty between Rameses II. And the Hittites in the <span class= "ital">Records of the Past, </span>vol. iv., pp. 27-32.) Thus a treaty with a nation was a sort of treaty with its gods.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/23-33.htm">Exodus 23:33</a></div><div class="verse">They 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.</div>(33) <span class= "bld">They shall </span>not <span class= "bld">dwell in thy land.</span>—Individuals might remain if they became proselytes, as Urijah the Hittite, Araunah the Jebusite, &c.; and the Gibeonites remained <span class= "ital">en masse, </span>but in a servile condition. What was forbidden was the co-existence of friendly but independent heathen communities with Israel within the limits of Canaan. This would have been a perpetual “snare” to the Israelites, and would have continually led them into idolatry; as we find that it did during the period of the early Judges. (See <a href="/context/judges/1-27.htm" title="Neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean and her towns, nor Taanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns: but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.">Judges 1:27-36</a>; <a href="/context/judges/2-11.htm" title="And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim:">Judges 2:11-13</a>; <a href="/context/judges/3-5.htm" title="And the children of Israel dwelled among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites:">Judges 3:5-7</a>.)<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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