Bible Commentaries
Go deeper in Scripture
Browse trusted public-domain commentary alongside DiscipleDeck Bible study. References inside each commentary open Bible previews in place.
35,156 commentary entries
All active commentary sources
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:3
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…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:4
Thine enemy's ox. A private enemy is here spoken of, not a public one, as in Deuteronomy 23:6. It is remarkable that the law should have so far anticipated Christianity as to have laid it down that men have duties of fr…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:5
If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee, etc. The general meaning of the passage is clear—assistance is to be given to the fallen ass of an enemy—but the exact sense of both the second and third clauses is doubtful.…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:6
As in Exodus 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…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:7
Keep thee far from a false matter. Hold aloof, i.e; from anything like a false accusation. Neither bring one, nor countenance one, else those mayest cause the death of an innocent and righteous man, and bring down on th…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:8
And thou shalt take no gift. The worst sin of a judge, and the commonest in the East, is to accept abribe from one of the parties to a suit, and give sentence accordingly. As such a practice defeats the whole end for wh…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:9
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 stra…
Matthew Henry on Exodus 23:10-19
Every seventh year the land was to rest. They must not plough or sow it; what the earth produced of itself, should be eaten, and not laid up. This law seems to have been intended to teach dependence on Providence, and G…
Matthew Henry on Exodus 23:10-19
Here is, I. The institution of the sabbatical year, Exodus 23:10-11. Every seventh year the land was to rest; they must not plough nor sow it at the beginning of the year, and then they could not expect any great harves…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:10-20
Sabbaths and feasts. I. SABBATHS. 1. The Sabbatic year (Exodus 23:10, Exodus 23:11). Every seventh year the land was to lie fallow, and what it spontaneously produced was to be a provision for the poor, and for the beas…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:12
The rest of the Sabbath. In the fourth commandment it is the main object of the Sabbath that is put prominently forward. It is a day to be "kept holy"—a day which God has "blessed and hallowed." Here, on the contrary, o…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:12
Law of the Sabbath, repeated. Nothing is here added to the teaching of the Fourth Commandment; but its merciful character is especially brought out. Men are called on to observe it, in order that their cattle may obtain…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:14-17
Law of Festivals. "The sanctification of days and times," says Richard Hooker, "is a token of that thankfulness and a part of that public honour which we owe to God for admirable benefits, whereof it doth not suffice th…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:14-17
Festival times. I. FESTIVALS ARE COMMEMORATIONS. The joyful occurrences of our own lives we by a natural instinct commemorate yearly, as the day comes round when they happened to us. Our birth-day, our wedding-day, are…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:14-17
A threefold cord is not quickly broken. To forget is far easier than to remember. Festivals are like posts to which we can fasten the cords of memory, so that, securely fastened, we may not drift down the stream of Leth…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:15
The feast of unleavened bread. This commenced with the Passover, and continued for the seven days following, with a "holy convocation" on the first of the seven and on the last (Leviticus 23:5-8). Unleavened bread was e…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:16
The feast of harvest. Fifty days were to be numbered from the day of offering the barley sheaf, and on the fiftieth the feast of harvest, thence called "Pentecost," was to be celebrated. Different Jewish sects make diff…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:17
Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord God. This seems to moderns a very burthensome enactment. But we must remember that Palestine is not bigger than Wales, and that great gatherings had gre…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:18
Law of the Paschal sacrifice. That the Paschal lamb is here intended by "my sacrifice," seems to be certain, since the two injunctions to put away leavened bread, and to allow none of the victim's flesh to remain till t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:19
Law of first-fruits. The first of the first-fruits may mean either "the best of the first-fruits" (see Numbers 18:12), or "the very first of each kind that is ripe" (ib, Exodus 23:13). On the tendency to delay, and not…
Matthew Henry on Exodus 23:20-33
It is here promised that they should be guided and kept in their way through the wilderness to the land of promise, Behold, I send an angel before thee, mine angel. The precept joined with this promise is, that they be…
Precepts and Promises. (b. c. 1491.)
PRECEPTS AND PROMISES. (B. C. 1491.) Three gracious promises are here made to Israel, to engage them to their duty and encourage them in it; and each of the promises has some needful precepts and cautions joined to it.…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:20-31
EXPOSITION THE REWARDS OF OBEDIENCE. God always places before men" the recompense of the reward." He does not require of them that they should serve him for nought. The "Book of the Covenant" appropriately ends with a n…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:20
Behold, I send a messenger before thee. Jewish commentators regard the messenger as Moses, who, no doubt, was a specially commissioned ambassador for God, and who might, therefore, well be termed God's messenger. But th…