Exodus 23:8

_THOU SHALT NOT WREST THE JUDGMENT OF THY POOR IN HIS CAUSE._ Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause. These verses contain a series of cautions to rulers and magistrates to take careful heed that the fountains of justice should not be polluted, through favour and partiality on the one hand, through hasty and careless decisions, or through secret bribery and corruption. Verse 7. KEEP THEE FAR FROM A FALSE MATTER - i:e., as the context suggests, from unjust judgments, inflicting capital punishment upon 'the innocent and righteous,' while the real criminals are allowed to escape. FOR I WILL NOT JUSTIFY THE WICKED - or absolve the guilty, although a human tribunal may give a verdict of acquittal. Verse 8. THOU SHALT TAKE NO GIFT - namely, from litigants whose cases are in dependence before you. FOR THE GIFT BLINDETH THE WISE, х_ PIQCHIYM_ (H6

Exodus 23:8_And thou shalt take no gift_. This kind of theft is the worst of all, when judges are corrupted either by bribes, or by affection, and thus ruin the fortunes which they ought to protect: for, since their tribunal is as it were sacred asylum, to which those who are unjustly oppressed may fly, nothing can be more unseemly than that they should there fall amongst robbers. (129) Judges are appointed to repress all wrongs and offenses; if therefore they show favor to the wicked, they are harborers of thieves; than which there is no more deadly pest. And besides, since their authority excludes every other remedy, they are themselves like rob-hers with arms in their hands. The greater, therefore, their power of injury is, and the greater the damage committed by their unjust sentences, the more diligently are they to be warned to beware of iniquity; and thus it was necessary to ke

1-9 In the law of Moses are very plain marks of sound moral feeling, and of true political wisdom. Every thing in it is suited to the desired and avowed object, the worship of one only God, and the separation of Israel from the pagan world. Neither parties, friends, witnesses, nor common opinions, must move us to lessen great faults, to aggravate small ones, excuse offenders, accuse the innocent, or misrepresent any thing....

Verse Exodus 23:8. _THOU SHALT TAKE NO GIFT_] A strong ordinance against _selling_ justice, which has been the disgrace and ruin of every state where it has been practised. In the excellent charter of British liberties called _Magna Charta_, there is one article expressly on this head: _Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus aut_ _differemus, rectum aut justitiam_. - Art. xxxiii. "To none will we sell, to none will we deny or defer, right or justice." This was the more necessary in those early and corrupt times, as he who had _most money_, and gave the largest presents (called then _oblata_) to the king or queen, was sure to gain his cause in the king's court; whether he had right and justice on his side or not....

Four precepts evidently addressed to those in authority as judges: (a) To do justice to the poor. ComparingExodus 23:6 with Exodus 23:3, it was the part of the judge to defend the poor against the oppression of the rich, and the part of the witness to take care lest his feelings of natural pity should tempt him to falsify evidence. (b) To be cautious of inflicting capital punishment on one whose guilt was not clearly proved. A doubtful case was rather to be left to God Himself, who would “not justify the wicked,” nor suffer him to go unpunished though he might be acquitted by an earthly tribunal....

THE BOOK OF THE COVENANT.—_Continued_. EXPOSITION EXODUS 23:1 MISCELLANEOUS LAWS—_continued_. The same want of logical arrangement appears in this chapter as in the preceding one. The first nine verses contain some twelve laws, of which not more than two that are consecutive can be said to be on the same subject. There is perhaps in the section a predominant idea of warning against sins and errors connected with the trial of causes before a court, but Exodus 23:4 and Exodus 23:5, at any rate, lie quite outside this idea. From...

AND THOU SHALT TAKE NO GIFT,.... Of the persons whose cause is to be tried in a court of judicature before judges; neither of those on the one side nor on the other, neither before the trial nor after, neither by words, by a promise, nor by facts, by actually receiving money; and not even to judge truly, as Jarchi observes, neither to clear the innocent nor to condemn the guilty: a gift was not to be taken on any consideration whatever: FOR THE GIFT BLINDETH THE WISE; or the "seeing" a; the open ones, who used to have both their eyes and their ears open, and attentive to the cause before them; and yet a gift so blinds them, by casting such a mist before them, that they are inattentive to the true merits of the cause, and their affections and judgments are to be carried away in favour of those that have bribed them, as to pass a wrong sentence: AND PERVERTETH THE WORDS OF THE RIGHTEOUS;...

CHAPTER 23 FURTHER JUDGMENTS AND DIRECTIONS _ 1. Concerning unrighteous dealings of various kinds (Exodus 23:1)_ 2. Concerning the seventh year (Exodus 23:10) 3. Concerning the three feasts (Exodus 23:14) 4. Promises concerning the possession of the land (Exodus 23:20) We call attention to the words concerning the seventh year. The seventh day was the day of rest. The seventh year was to give the land rest; it was to rest and lie still. Besides this there was the jubilee year, which occurred every seven times seven years, that is, the fiftieth year was the year of jubilee, in which liberty was pro

EXODUS 23:1 R. JUSTICE. Form and substance also separate _this_ group from the Judgments and ally it with the Words of Yahweh in the Covenant Book. Circulating groundless reports (Exodus 23:1_ a_), conspiring with him that is in the wrong (_cf. Exodus 2:13_) to be a malicious witness (Exodus 23:1_ b),_ siding with the strongest in action or witness-bearing (Exodus 23:2), and partiality in judgment (Exodus 23:3) are condemned. Read in...

BLINDETH... PERVERTETH: i.e. causeth these acts, or _sins._ Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Effect), App-6. WISE. Hebrew seeing the most clear-sighted....