Scripture Daily

Context No. 2981 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 23:6-11: in context

6“You shall not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits. 7“Keep far from a false charge, and don’t kill the innocent and righteous; for I will not justify the wicked. 8“You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous. 9“You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien, since you were aliens in the land of Egypt. 10“For six years you shall sow your land, and shall gather in its increase, 11but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the animal of the field shall eat. In the same way, you shall deal with your vineyard and with your olive grove.

These are laws of justice, and they bend deliberately toward the vulnerable. Do not deny justice to your poor in their lawsuits. Keep far from a false charge; do not put the innocent to death. Take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and twists the words of the righteous. Do not oppress the foreigner, for you know the heart of a foreigner, since you were foreigners in Egypt.

Every one of these commands guards someone who could be exploited. The poor are not to be denied their rights, bribes that blind judgment are forbidden, the foreigner is not to be oppressed, and Israel is told to remember it was a foreigner once. And the sabbath-year command builds provision for the poor right into the farming calendar, the land left to rest so the needy can eat from it. God's law is not neutral about power; it actively shields the poor, the innocent, and the outsider, appealing to Israel's own memory of being oppressed to keep their hearts soft.

Does the memory that I too have been shown mercy make me actively just and generous toward the poor and the outsider?

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