Exodus 23:1-3

"Thou shalt not take up a false report; put not thy hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to turn aside after a multitude to wrest justice: neither shalt thou favor a poor man in his cause."

The scene here focuses upon a time when judicial decisions were still resolved by the citizens in assembly, before the judiciary was formally established, and the aim of these regulations was that of protecting accused persons against false witnesses, and against opinions of majorities. In matters of truth and righteousness, it has often been the tyranny of majorities that perverted and denied justice. Exodus 23:3 even has a caution against favoring the cause of a poor man, not through a sense of justice, but through pity. True decisions must not be made upon the basis of what is popular, or upon the basis of pity for appelants, but upon the basis of what is just and equitable, favoring neither rich nor poor, young nor old, popular or unpopular men.

"Thou shalt not take up a false report ..." This is an extension of Commandment IX of the Decalogue, referring not merely to the initiation of a lying report, but to the taking up of it and repeating it.

"Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil ..." Johnson applied this to mob violence, such as a lynching,[2] but far more than that is included. Before Exodus was concluded, all Israel followed the majority report of the ten unfaithful spies, resulting in a 40-year probation for the whole nation. Majorities in all ages have been disastrously wrong. It was the vociferous and clamorous insistence of "the majority" that crucified the Lord, and it is no less true today that "the majority" on almost any important religious question are wrong! "It is extraordinary that so many, even of professing Christians, are content to go with the many."[3] Our Lord said, "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:14). The truth is always, in every field of concern, a very narrow and exact thing. There is an exact velocity that must be reached to send a satellite into space. Chemical compounds must be of the most precise and exact combinations. A safety vault in a great bank never opens upon an approximate manipulation of its intricate combination lock.

"Neither shalt thou favor a poor man in his cause ..." Rawlinson wrote, "This is a shock!"[4] Harford suggested that we read it, "Great instead of poor, because partiality for the poor needed no prohibition."[5] Johnson declared that, "There is no need to warn against injustice due to wrongly directed sympathy."[6] It is a shame that God did not check in with such commentators as these and get their opinions before issuing the eternal prohibition of these verses! Of course, those who disagree with God on this point suggest that the text be "emended" changed (only a little mark or so would do it), but there is no fault with the text here. And, as for wrongly directed sympathy, our own generation has witnessed all kinds of violations of this very commandment. As Fields said, "Our times have seen the rise of the foolish notion that we should pass every possible law to take wealth from the rich and give it to the poor."[7] This was the same procedure as that followed by the Caesars whose pandering to the insatiable appetites of the multitudes of the poor pressing upon Rome to receive "free bread and circuses" resulted eventually in the destruction of their society. Violation of the command of God will never go unpunished. There is not enough material wealth on earth to give everyone all that he wants! When there are no longer any wealthy persons to exploit on behalf of the poor, the abject poverty of all shall have been, at that time, fully accomplished.