Context No. 64 of 4322 · Exodus
Context · Reflection
Exodus 22:19-24: in context
19“Whoever has sex with an animal shall surely be put to death. 20“He who sacrifices to any god, except to the LORD only, shall be utterly destroyed. 21“You shall not wrong an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. 22“You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child. 23If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry; 24and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
After the Ten Commandments, Exodus gives a long body of case law for Israel's ordinary life, covering property, injury, lending, and worship. This passage sits in the middle of it and moves from crimes punished by death to a different kind of command, protecting people with no one to protect them.
Do not wrong or oppress a resident foreigner, the text says, and then gives the reason: because you were foreigners in Egypt. The law is grounded in memory rather than principle. You know what this is like from the inside, so do not do it. Then widows and orphans, the two groups in that society with no male head of household and therefore no standing in court and no reliable income.
The enforcement is unusual. Most laws here specify a human penalty. This one says that if you exploit them and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry, and my anger will burn, and your own wives will become widows and your children fatherless. The punishment is the injury handed back exactly. No court has to notice. The cry alone is the mechanism. Who has a complaint against me that would never reach a court, and am I counting on that?
Sources
- Exodus 20:22-23:33, the Book of the Covenant, the case law this passage belongs to
- Exodus 22:21: the reason given for protecting the foreigner, that Israel were foreigners in Egypt
- Deuteronomy 24:17-22 and James 1:27: the recurring pairing of widow, orphan, and foreigner