23:4 “If you encounter 1 your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, you must by all means return 2 it to him. 23:5 If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen under its load, you must not ignore him, 3 but be sure to help 4 him with it. 5
23:6 “You must not turn away justice for your poor people in their lawsuits. 23:7 Keep your distance 6 from a false charge 7 – do not kill the innocent and the righteous, 8 for I will not justify the wicked. 9
23:8 “You must not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see 10 and subverts the words of the righteous.
23:9 “You must not oppress 11 a foreigner, since you know the life 12 of a foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
1 tn Heb “meet” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).
2 tn The construction uses the imperfect tense (taken here as an obligatory imperfect) and the infinitive absolute for emphasis.
3 tn The line reads “you will cease to forsake him” – refrain from leaving your enemy without help.
4 tn The law is emphatic here as well, using the infinitive absolute and the imperfect of instruction (or possibly obligation). There is also a wordplay here: two words עָזַב (’azav) are used, one meaning “forsake” and the other possibly meaning “arrange” based on Arabic and Ugaritic evidence (see U. Cassuto, Exodus, 297-98).
5 sn See H. B. Huffmon, “Exodus 23:4-5: A Comparative Study,” A Light Unto My Path, 271-78.
5 tn Or “stay away from,” or “have nothing to do with.”
6 tn Heb “a false matter,” this expression in this context would have to be a case in law that was false or that could only be won by falsehood.
7 tn The two clauses probably should be related: the getting involved in the false charge could lead to the death of an innocent person (so, e.g., Naboth in 1 Kgs 21:10-13).
8 sn God will not declare right the one who is in the wrong. Society should also be consistent, but it cannot see the intents and motives, as God can.
7 tn Heb “blinds the open-eyed.”
9 tn The verb means “to crush.” S. R. Driver notes that in this context this would probably mean with an unfair judgment in the courts (Exodus, 239).
10 tn Heb “soul, life” – “you know what it feels like.”