Luke 13:15

13:15 Then the Lord answered him, ¹  “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from its stall, ²  and lead it to water? ³ 

Exodus 23:4-5

23:4 “If you encounter ⁴  your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, you must by all means return ⁵  it to him. 23:5 If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen under its load, you must not ignore him, ⁶  but be sure to help ⁷  him with it. ⁸ 

Daniel 4:24

4:24 this is the interpretation, O king! It is the decision of the Most High that this has happened to my lord the king.

Matthew 12:11-12

12:11 He said to them, “Would not any one of you, if he had one sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, take hold of it and lift it out? 12:12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

¹ tn Grk “answered him and said.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been shortened to “answered him.”

² tn Grk “from the manger [feeding trough],” but by metonymy of part for whole this can be rendered “stall.”

³ sn The charge here is hypocrisy, but it is only part one of the response. Various ancient laws detail what was allowed with cattle; see Mishnah, m. Shabbat 5; CD 11:5-6.

⁴ tn Heb “meet” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).

⁵ tn The construction uses the imperfect tense (taken here as an obligatory imperfect) and the infinitive absolute for emphasis.

⁶ tn The line reads “you will cease to forsake him” – refrain from leaving your enemy without help.

⁷ 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).

⁸ sn See H. B. Huffmon, “Exodus 23:4-5: A Comparative Study,” A Light Unto My Path, 271-78.