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Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Exodus 23:1-19

Miscellaneous matters (22:18-23:19)Israelite law prohibited pagan customs and religious practices that threatened the nation’s spiritual life. The penalty for such offences was usually death (18-20). The Israelite people were to remember their own bitter experiences in Egypt and show mercy to the disadvantaged. The law against charging interest on a loan was designed to encourage the rich to help the poor instead of exploiting them (21-27). (For the contrast between lending that is greedy... read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Exodus 23:14-17

"Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep: seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it thou camest out of Egypt); and none shall appear before me empty: and the feast of the harvest, the first-fruits of thy labors, which thou sowest in the field: and the feast of ingatherings, at the end of the year, when thou gatherest in thy labors out of the field. Three times... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Exodus 23:16

Exodus 23:16. And the feast of harvest— Concerning this feast, otherwise called the feast of weeks, or of pentecost; see Deu 16:9-12 and Leviticus 23:15; Leviticus 23:44. And the feast of in-gathering— Concerning this feast, commonly called the feast of tabernacles; see Deuteronomy 16:13-15.Leviticus 23:34; Leviticus 23:34; Leviticus 23:44. read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Exodus 23:13-19

The reiteration of basic principles of worship 23:13-19 read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Exodus 23:14-17

All the male Israelites had to make a pilgrimage to the sanctuary (tabernacle) three times a year for the feasts of Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits (Weeks, Pentecost), and Ingathering (Booths, Tabernacles). Women and children would have normally accompanied the males. This requirement fostered the maintenance of the national and social unity of the 12 tribes as well as their spiritual unity. read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 23:1-33

The Book of the Covenant (concluded)1-19. Miscellaneous Laws.1. Raise] RV ’take up,’ i.e. give ear to. This is an extension of the ninth commandment: cp. the Arabic proverb, ’In wickedness the listener is the ally of the speaker.’2. To decline after] RV ’to turn aside after.’ 3. Countenance] Give undue favour to. As judgment is to be without fear (Exodus 23:2), so is it to be without favour, whether of rich or poor: cp. Exodus 23:6.4, 5. Thine enemy’s ox] The Mosaic Law inculcates the duty of... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Exodus 23:1-19

XXIII.(1-19) The “miscellaneous laws” are here continued. From Exodus 23:1 to Exodus 23:9 no kind of sequence in the laws can be traced; from Exodus 23:10 to the first clause of Exodus 23:19 there is, on the contrary, a certain connection, since the laws enunciated are concerned with ceremonial observance. The closing law, however, is not ceremonial, but the prohibition of a practice considered to be cruel. On the whole, it may be said that The Book of the Covenant maintains its unsystematic... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Exodus 23:14-17

(14-17) The first great festival—the Passover festival—had been already instituted (Exodus 12:3-20; Exodus 13:3-10). It pleased the Divine Legislator at this time to add to that festival two others, and to make all three equally obligatory. There is some reason to suppose that, in germ, the “feast of harvest” and the “feast of ingathering” already existed. All nations, from the earliest time to which history reaches back, had festival seasons of a religious character; and no seasons are more... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Exodus 23:16

(16) The feast of harvest.—It was calculated that the grain-harvest would be completed fifty days after it had begun. On this fiftieth day (Pentecost) the second festival was to commence by the offering of two loaves made of the new wheat just gathered in. On the other offerings commanded, see Leviticus 23:18-20. The Law limited the feast to a single day—the “day of Pentecost”—but in practice it was early extended to two days, in order to cover a possible miscalculation as to the exact time.The... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Exodus 23:1-33

Exodus 23:2 At certain seasons the only way of being right in the future consists in knowing how to resign ourselves to being unfashionable in the present. Renan. Universal suffrage assembled at hustings I will consult it about the quality of New Orleans pork, or the coarser kinds of Irish butter; but as to the character of men, I will if possible ask it no question: or if the question be asked and the answer given, I will generally consider, in cases of any importance, that the said answer is... read more

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