Commentary - Exodus 23:6-9

Bird's-eye view

In this brief section of the Book of the Covenant, the Lord lays down foundational principles of justice that are to govern His people. Having been delivered from the arbitrary and oppressive injustice of Egypt, Israel is now being constituted as a nation under God, and that means they are to be a just nation. These commands are not dusty legalisms; they are the framework for a society that reflects the character of God Himself. The passage addresses three key areas where justice is frequently subverted: the rights of the poor, the integrity of the legal process, and the treatment of the foreigner. These are not sentimental appeals to social action, but rather concrete applications of the second great commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself. The underlying logic is covenantal: because God is a just God who has redeemed you, you must therefore deal justly with one another. This is the general equity of the law, and it is perpetually binding.

The flow of the passage is direct and potent. It moves from the specific temptation to disregard the poor man's case to the broader prohibitions against judicial falsehood and murder. It then strikes at the root of much corruption, the bribe, which blinds the eyes of even the wise. Finally, it circles back to a point of particular importance for Israel: the sojourner. Their own national memory of being sojourners in Egypt is invoked as the basis for empathy and just treatment. This is applied theology, showing that our vertical relationship with God must have horizontal, practical outworkings in our courts, our wallets, and our neighborhoods. The entire section is a powerful reminder that true worship and a just society are inextricably linked.

Outline

Context In Exodus

These verses are situated within what scholars call the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 20:22–23:33). This section immediately follows the giving of the Ten Commandments at Sinai and serves as the detailed case-law application of those foundational principles. The Ten Words are the constitutional articles, and the Book of the Covenant is the statutory code. God has just declared broad principles like "You shall not murder" and "You shall not bear false witness," and now He provides specific scenarios to show what those principles look like on the ground.

The immediate context of verses 6-9 is a series of commands dealing with judicial integrity. The preceding verses warn against following a multitude to do evil, showing partiality to a poor man in his lawsuit (v. 3), and even how to deal with an enemy's livestock (vv. 4-5). This demonstrates that God's law is concerned with the whole of life, from the high court to the stray donkey. The laws that follow this section concern the Sabbath, annual feasts, and conquest of the land, reminding us that Israel's civil life was nested within their life of worship and their mission from God.

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 6 “You shall not cause the justice due to your needy brother to be turned aside in his case."

The first command here gets right to the point. The word for "needy" or "poor" refers to someone in a position of weakness and vulnerability. It is precisely these individuals who are most susceptible to injustice. The world's way is to favor the strong, the connected, the man who can return the favor. But God's law establishes a different standard. Notice that it does not say to automatically rule in the poor man's favor. In fact, verse 3 of this same chapter warns against that very thing: "nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his dispute." The principle is not partiality for the poor, but impartiality for all. Justice is to be blind. The temptation, however, is rarely to favor the poor man against the rich; it is almost always the other way around. God knows our hearts, and He knows that the natural inclination of a fallen magistrate is to bend justice in the direction that power and money are flowing. This command is a bulwark against that corruption. The justice is "due" to him; it is his right as a member of the covenant community. To deny it is not just an injustice, it is a form of theft.

v. 7 “Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not justify the guilty."

This verse broadens the scope from the specific case of the poor to the general character of all judicial proceedings. "Keep far from a false charge" is a wonderfully robust command. It doesn't just say "do not make a false charge." It says to give it a wide berth. Have nothing to do with it. Don't entertain it, don't listen to gossip that might lead to it, don't associate with those who peddle in it. This is a call for a culture of truthfulness. A society where false charges are common is a society rotting from the inside out. The second part of the verse raises the stakes: "do not kill the innocent or the righteous." This shows where judicial corruption ultimately leads. A bent court is not just a civil problem; it is a fountain of blood. When liars are believed and the truth is subverted, innocent men die. This is the sin of judicial murder, a heinous crime in the sight of God. The verse concludes with a solemn warning from God Himself: "for I will not justify the guilty." Men may acquit the wicked for a price, but God will not. The final court of appeal is His, and His verdict is always true. This should put the fear of God into any judge, lawyer, or witness. Human courts may fail, but divine justice is inescapable.

v. 8 “And you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just."

Here we come to the tool that so often facilitates the perversion of justice mentioned in the previous verses. A bribe is a secret payment to pervert an official judgment. God's analysis of what a bribe does is profoundly insightful. First, it "blinds the clear-sighted." The issue is not necessarily that the judge is a dullard. He might be a sharp man, wise in the ways of the world, able to see the nuances of a case. But the bribe works like cataracts on the eyes of his mind. It introduces a consideration that has nothing to do with the facts of the case, and this new factor obscures everything. He can no longer see what is right and true because the glint of the silver or gold is in his eyes. Second, a bribe "subverts the cause of the just." The word for subvert means to twist or to ruin. It takes a straight case, the righteous man's cause, and it twists it into a crooked thing. The bribe doesn't just lead to a bad outcome; it corrupts the very process. It is a poison in the well of public justice. A society that tolerates bribery has surrendered its claim to be a just society. It has decided that truth is for sale, which means it has no real truth at all.

v. 9 “And you shall not oppress a sojourner, since you yourselves know the soul of a sojourner, for you also were sojourners in the land of Egypt."

The chapter concludes by turning to another vulnerable party: the sojourner, the resident alien. This is the immigrant, the foreigner living among the people of Israel. They were not to be oppressed. Why? The reason given is not abstract humanitarianism, but rather an appeal to Israel's own historical experience. "You know the soul of a sojourner." This is a call to covenantal empathy. They knew the fear, the loneliness, the vulnerability, the feeling of being an outsider. They knew what it was like to be at the mercy of a host nation. Their 400 years in Egypt were to be a permanent lesson in how not to treat the foreigner in the gate. This is a beautiful outworking of the gospel. God's grace to us in our helpless state is meant to transform how we treat others in their helpless state. Because you were redeemed from bondage, you must not create bondage for others. This does not nullify the need for national borders or wise immigration laws, of course. But it does mean that whatever laws a nation has, they must be administered with justice and without oppression, particularly for those who are lawfully resident within the land. The memory of redemption is meant to produce a culture of gracious justice.

Application

The principles laid down in this ancient legal code are as relevant today as the day Moses wrote them down. We may not have the same judicial structures as ancient Israel, but the temptations to pervert justice are perennial. The general equity of these laws still binds the conscience of every magistrate, every citizen, and every church.

First, we must be a people who care about justice for the poor and vulnerable. This is not the same thing as the modern social justice movement, which is often a front for Marxist ideologies of envy and resentment. Biblical justice means ensuring that the poor man gets a fair hearing, not that he gets a guaranteed outcome based on his economic status. It means Christians should be the first to decry corruption in our courts and to support measures that ensure equal justice under the law for everyone, regardless of their bank account.

Second, we must be a people of the truth. We live in an age of rampant false accusations, where reputations are destroyed by social media mobs based on nothing but hearsay. The command to "keep far from a false charge" is a searching word for us. We must refuse to participate in slander, gossip, and character assassination. And we must understand that when our judicial system begins to condemn the innocent and acquit the guilty, it is a sign of advanced cultural decay. God will not justify the wicked, and a nation that does so is setting itself up for judgment.

Finally, we must remember where we came from. Spiritually, we were all sojourners and aliens, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world (Eph. 2:12). But God, in His great mercy, made us fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Our memory of that spiritual deliverance should make us gracious and just in our dealings with the literal sojourners among us. It should make us a people known for our integrity, our fairness, and our reflection of the just and merciful character of our saving God.