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27,299 commentary entries
The Pulpit Commentary
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…
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
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 23:14-17
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 23:15
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…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:20-33
The Mediatorial Guide. "Behold I send an angel before thee," etc. (Exodus 23:20). [We omit from homiletic treatment Ex 20:22-23:19, containing a large amount of minute legislation; but if any one for special reason wish…
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…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:20-31
God's promises sometimes absolute, but for the most part contingent on obedience. "Behold, I send an angel before thee." Here was a positive promise. An angel, a guide, a protector, would go before them throughout their…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:20-33
Promises and warnings. These conclude the Book of the Covenant. I. PROMISES. 1. An angel guide (Exodus 23:20-23). But this angel was no ordinary or created angel. He is repeatedly identified with Jehovah himself. God's…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:20-23
The angel of the covenant. Certain of the matters on which Jehovah had been speaking immediately before the promise of the angel, assumed that the people would assuredly come to dwell in a land very different from that…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:20
Mine angel shall go before thee. A prepared people have to be led into a prepared place (Exodus 23:20). To lead them a guide is necessary, and God provides a guide. I. THE GUIDE AND HIS OFFICE. 1. His nature and charact…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:21
Provoke him not. On the disobedience of the Israelites to this precept, see Numbers 14:11; Psalms 78:17, Psalms 78:40, Psalms 78:56, etc. My name is in him. God's honour he will not give to another. He does not set His…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:21
The angel provoked. The language in this passage is very strong, and may occasion difficulty. "Provoke him not, for he will not pardon your transgressions; for my name is in him." If this angel is the Son of God, he who…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:22
If thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak. The change of persons in the latter clause—"all that I speak," instead of "all that he speaks"—implies the doctrine of the perienchoresis or circuminsessio,…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:23
The Amorites, and the Hittites, etc. The nations of Canaan proper, to whom the Gergashites are sometimes added. See the comment on 2 Samuel 3:8. I will cut them off. Or "cut them down," i.e; destroy them from being any…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 23:24
Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works. It is always to be borne in mind that with the idolatries of the heathen were connected "works of darkness," which it is shameful even to…