Exodus 23

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¹“You shall not give a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked person to be a malicious witness. ✦ ²You shall not follow the crowd in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to join together with a crowd in order to pervert justice; ✦ ³nor shall you show favor to a poor person in his dispute. ✦ ⁴“If you encounter your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you must return it to him. ✦ ⁵If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall not leave it helpless for its owner; you must arrange the load with him. ✦ ⁶“You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute. ✦ ⁷Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit the guilty. ✦ ⁸“You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just. ✦ ⁹“You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt. ✦ ¹⁰“Now you shall sow your land for six years and gather in its yield, ✦ ¹¹but in the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie uncultivated, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the animal of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove. ✦ ¹²“For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as the stranger residing with you, may refresh themselves. ✦ ¹³Now concerning everything which I have said to you, be careful; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth. ✦ ¹⁴“Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me. ✦ ¹⁵You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. And no one is to appear before Me empty-handed. ✦ ¹⁶Also you shall keep the Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field. ✦ ¹⁷Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord God. ✦ ¹⁸“You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor is the fat of My feast to remain overnight until morning. ✦ ¹⁹“You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God. “You are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother. ✦ ²⁰“Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. ✦ ²¹Be attentive to him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your rebellion, since My name is in him. ✦ ²²But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. ✦ ²³For My angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I will completely destroy them. ✦ ²⁴You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their memorial stones in pieces. ✦ ²⁵And you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst. ✦ ²⁶There will be no one miscarrying or unable to have children in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. ✦ ²⁷I will send My terror ahead of you, and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. ✦ ²⁸And I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from you. ✦ ²⁹I will not drive them out from you in a single year, so that the land will not become desolate and the animals of the field become too numerous for you. ✦ ³⁰I will drive them out from you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land. ³¹I will set your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates River; for I will hand over the inhabitants of the land to you, and you will drive them out from you. ✦ ³²You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. ✦ ³³They shall not live in your land, otherwise they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it is certain to be a snare to you.” ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Where this chapter connects

Exod 34 ·14 Deut 7 ·12 Josh 24 ·10 Deut 16 ·9 Lev 23 ·8 Exod 23 ·7 Deut 12 ·6 Lev 19 ·6

Christ at the center

The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.

How Exodus 23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereDocumentaryExpedition BibleJoel Kramer · Free · evangelical
On-location biblical archaeology from a credentialed archaeologist (M.A., excavated in Israel) — the best free place to start on "did it really happen?"
★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.
VideoSpoken GospelSpoken Gospel · Free · evangelical
Short, gospel-centered videos and spoken-word poems showing how each passage points to Jesus — especially strong on the Old Testament.
DocumentaryPatterns of Evidence: The ExodusTim Mahoney · Paid · evangelical
Investigates the archaeological evidence for the Exodus. Note: it advances a minority biblical chronology that mainstream scholars dispute — engaging, but weigh its conclusions critically.

Pastoral

★ Start hereCommentaryExodus (New American Commentary)Douglas K. Stuart · Paid · evangelical
The best evangelical, semi-technical commentary on Exodus — accessible to pastors and serious students.
DocumentaryThat the World May KnowRay Vander Laan · Paid · evangelical
Ray Vander Laan's on-location series immersing you in the Bible's historical and cultural world. (Mostly paid via Focus on the Family; some free clips.)
SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Exodus videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Exodus 23YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Exodus 23David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on ExodusMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Exodus 23Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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