Exodus 22:20-24

"He that sacrifices unto any god, save unto Jehovah only, shall be utterly destroyed. And a sojourner shalt thou not wrong, neither shalt thou oppress him: for ye were sojourners in the land of Egypt. Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them at all, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless."

Harford noted that "custom gave no legal status whatever"[19] to strangers, resident aliens, widows, or orphans. These groups were totally ignored in the law codes of those times and for centuries earlier, but here the loving protection of the just and merciful God is made to be for all such persons a bulwark against the injustices of mankind.

Rawlinson commented on Exodus 22:24 here that, "It was, in large measure, on account of the neglect of this precept, that the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and destruction of its inhabitants, was allowed to take place (Jeremiah 22:3-5)."[20]

In full harmony with the sanctions against perversion and witchcraft, both of which had theological implications and were in essence denials of the true God, the order visible here in Exodus 22:20 was designed to establish among God's people the principle that idolatrous gods were non-entities and that the only God is Jehovah - the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. The notion among some people to the effect that God's methods were harsh and brutal betrays upon their part a TOTAL IGNORANCE of the dimensions and the importance of that problem.