Exodus 23

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¹“You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. ✦ ²You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice. ✦ ³You shall not show partiality to a poor man in his dispute. ✦ ⁴“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. ✦ ⁵If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it. ✦ ⁶“You shall not pervert the judgment of your poor in his dispute. ✦ ⁷Keep yourself far from a false matter; do not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked. ✦ ⁸And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous. ✦ ⁹“Also you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ✦ ¹⁰“Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, ✦ 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 beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove. ✦ ¹²Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed. ✦ ¹³“And in all that I have said to you, be circumspect and make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth. ✦ ¹⁴“Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: ✦ ¹⁵You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty); ✦ ¹⁶and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field. ✦ ¹⁷“Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God. ✦ ¹⁸“You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor shall the fat of My sacrifice remain until morning. ✦ ¹⁹The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. ✦ ²⁰“Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. ✦ ²¹Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him. ✦ ²²But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, 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 in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off. ✦ ²⁴You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars. ✦ ²⁵“So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you. ✦ ²⁶No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. ✦ ²⁷“I will send My fear before you, I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. ✦ ²⁸And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. ✦ ²⁹I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. ✦ ³⁰Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land. ³¹And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert to the River. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. ✦ ³²You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. ✦ ³³They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely 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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