Exodus 23

Ex 23:1-33.

LAWS CONCERNING

SLANDER, &c.

1. put not thine hand--join not hands.

2. decline--depart, deviate from the straight path of

rectitude.

3. countenance--adorn, embellish--thou shalt not varnish the

cause even of a poor man to give it a better coloring than it

merits.

10. six years thou shalt sow thy land--intermitting the

cultivation of the land every seventh year. But it appears that even

then there was a spontaneous produce which the poor were permitted

freely to gather for their use, and the beasts driven out fed on the

remainder, the owners of fields not being allowed to reap or collect

the fruits of the vineyard or oliveyard during the course of this

sabbatical year. This was a regulation subservient to many excellent

purposes; for, besides inculcating the general lesson of dependence on

Providence, and of confidence in His faithfulness to His promise

respecting the triple increase on the sixth year

(Le 25:20, 21),

it gave the Israelites a practical proof that they held their

properties of the Lord as His tenants, and must conform to His rules on

pain of forfeiting the lease of them.

12. Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou

shalt rest--This law is repeated

[Ex 20:9]

lest any might suppose there was a relaxation of its observance during

the sabbatical year.

13. make no mention of the name of other gods, &c.--that is, in

common conversation, for a familiar use of them would tend to lessen

horror of idolatry.

14-18. Three times . . . keep a feast . . . in

the year--This was the institution of the great religious

festivals--"The feast of unleavened bread," or the passover--"the feast

of harvest," or pentecost--"the feast of ingathering," or the feast of

tabernacles, which was a memorial of the dwelling in booths in the

wilderness, and which was observed in the seventh month

(Ex 12:2).

All the males were enjoined to repair to the tabernacle and afterwards

the temple, and the women frequently went. The institution of this

national custom was of the greatest importance in many ways: by keeping

up a national sense of religion and a public uniformity in worship, by

creating a bond of unity, and also by promoting internal commerce among

the people. Though the absence of all the males at these three

festivals left the country defenseless, a special promise was given of

divine protection, and no incursion of enemies was ever permitted to

happen on those occasions.

19. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk--A

prohibition against imitating the superstitious rites of the idolaters

in Egypt, who, at the end of their harvest, seethed a kid in its

mother's milk and sprinkled the broth as a magical charm on their

gardens and fields, to render them more productive the following

season. [See on

De 14:21].

20-25. Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the

way--The communication of these laws, made to Moses and by him

rehearsed to the people, was concluded by the addition of many

animating promises, intermingled with several solemn warnings that

lapses into sin and idolatry would not be tolerated or passed with

impunity.

21. my name is in him--This angel is frequently called Jehovah

and Elohim, that is, God.

28. I will send hornets before thee, &c. (See on

Jos 24:12)

--Some instrument of divine judgment, but variously interpreted: as

hornets in a literal sense [BOCHART]; as a

pestilential disease [ROSENMULLER]; as a terror of

the Lord, an extraordinary dejection [JUNIUS].

29, 30. I will not drive . . . out . . . in one

year; lest the land become desolate--Many reasons recommend a

gradual extirpation of the former inhabitants of Canaan. But only one

is here specified--the danger lest, in the unoccupied grounds, wild

beasts should inconveniently multiply; a clear proof that the promised

land was more than sufficient to contain the actual population of the

Israelites.