Scriptural text: Exodus 23:1-12
Rules of Due Process (Exodus 23:1-3).
(Verse 1), The ninth commandment here is expanded and developed. Thou shalt not raise a false report, forbids origination of a columny; the other clause prohibits the joining with others in spreading one. Both clauses have a special reference to bearing witness in a court, but neither would seem to be confined to it.
(Verse 2) Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. A law alike for deed, for word, for thought. The example of the many is to be shunned. Neither shalt thou speak, etc., Rather, “Neither shalt thou bear witness in a cause to go aside after a multitude to put aside justice.” The general precept is followed by a particular application of it, in judging a cause, if thou art one of the judges, thou shalt not go simply with the majority, if it be bent on injustice, but form thine own opinion and adhere to it.
(Verse 3) Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause. After the many precepts in favour of the poor, this injunction produces a sort of shock. But it is to be understood as simply forbidding any undue favouring of the poor because they are poor, and so as equivalent in Exodus 19:15, “Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor.” In courts of justice, strict justice is to be rendered, without leaning either towards the rich, or towards the poor. To lean either way is to pervert justice.
Helping an Enemy (vv. 4-5).
“Thine enemy’s ox.” A private enemy is here spoken of , not a public one. It is remarkable that the law should have so far anticipated Christianity as to have laid it down that men have duties of friendliness even towards their enemies, and are bound under certain circumstances to render them a service. (v. 5), “If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee,” The general meaning of the passage is clear – but the exact sense of both the second and third clauses is doubtful. “Thou shalt surely help with him.” The joint participation in an act of mercy towards a fallen beast would bring the enemies into friendly contact, and soften their feelings towards each other.
Rules of Due Process, Part 2 (vv. 6-8).
As in 23:3, men were warned not to favour the poor unduly in courts of justice out of compassion for them, so here there is a warning against the opposite, and far more usual error, of leaning against the poor man in our evidence or in our decisions. The scales of justice are to be held even; strict right is to be done; our feelings are not to be allowed to influence us, much less our class prejudices.
Justice in Economic Matters
Care for Migrants (v. 9).
“Thou shalt not oppress a stranger.” This is a repetition of Exodus 22:21, with perhaps a special reference to oppression through courts of justice. “For thou knowest the heart of a stranger.” Literally, “the mind of a stranger,” or, in other words, his thoughts and feelings. Thou shouldest therefore be able to sympathize with him.
The Sabbatical Year (vv. 10-11).
Days of rest, at regular or irregular intervals, were well known to the ancients and some regulations of the kind that existed in most countries. But entire years of rest were wholly unknown to any nation except the Israelites.
The Sabbath Day (v. 12).
This text differs from the Sabbath laws in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11); in two ways. First, the verse before us does not give a warrant for the law (elsewhere justified by referring to the creation of the world or to God’s deliverance of Israel in the exodus). And second, it does not command the recipients’s family to rest. The latter point went without saying, while the former points to the fact that the Ten Commandments, despite their brevity, richly develop important details.
References: Studylight Commentary, 2021-2022 KJV Standard Lesson Commentary