Exodus 22.16-23.19

Social and Religious Laws

Social and Religious Laws / Justice For All / Sabbatical Year and Sabbath / The Annual Festivals

Yesterday's entry covered laws of the altar and personal property in Exodus 20.22-22.15. Today's entry covers social and religious laws in Exodus 22.16-23.19. Notice that in some of these the punishment for breaking the law is stated.

Social and Religious Laws: Exodus 22.16-31

A man who seduces and sleeps with an engaged virgin shall pay her bride price and make her his wife. If the father refuses to release his daughter, the man shall pay the bride price for a virgin. [This is sort of a lose-lose situation. In the "sex-marriage economy," (a term I picked up from a feminist teacher) a woman loses a good deal of her bride-price "value" if she has been deflowered. The only winner in this situation is the father.]

"You shall not permit a female sorcerer to live" (Ex. 22.18). [How could I possibly put that more succinctly?]

"Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death" (Ex. 22.19). [Likewise...]

Israelites should not oppress resident aliens, because the Israelites too were once aliens in Egypt.

Likewise, Israelites should not abuse widows or orphans. The punishment for this is put rather eloquently:

If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry; my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children orphans.
(Ex. 22.23-24)

There should be interest on money loaned to other Israelites. Likewise, if you take your neighbor's coat in pawn, you should give it back before nighttime, because it might be his only clothing for sleep. If a neighbor cries out, God will listen, "for I am compassionate" (Ex. 22.27).

Do not revile God or curse a leader of the Israelites. [Respect authority]

Make offerings of the harvest and wine quickly after reaping and pressing.

The firstborn son should be given to God. The same shall be done with sheep and oxen. On the eighth day the animal should be removed from its mother and given to God. [Plague flashback! According to Exodus 13.1, all firstborns are to be consecrated, human and animal, regardless of sex. Here it seems the firstborn human is consecrated, whereas the firstborn animal is actually sacrificed. Speaking of...]

The Israelites are consecrated to God. They shall therefore not eat meat mangled by beasts in the field. That is to be given to dogs.

Justice For All: Exodus 23.1-9

[These are so succinct, I decided to just quote them directly.]

"You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with the wicked to act as a malicious witness. You shall not follow a majority in wrongdoing; when you bear witness in a lawsuit, you shall not side with the majority so as to pervert justice; nor shall you be partial to the poor in a lawsuit."

"When you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it back."

"When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free."

"You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in their lawsuits. Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or those in the right, for I will not acquit the guilty. You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the officials, and subverts the cause of those who are in the right."

"You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt." [Stated above.]

Sabbatical Year and Sabbath: Exodus 23.10-13

For six years you should reap what you sow in a field, vineyard, or olive orchard. On the seventh year, the land should rest and lie fallow. This way the poor may eat what grows in the field - and the wild animals will eat what they leave behind. [Besides representing the Sabbath, the year off also has the practical purpose of feeding the poor and allowing the land to recover its nutrients from six years straight of crops.]

You should work six days and rest on the seventh, so that your oxen, donkeys, and slaves can be refreshed. [Here the practical purpose of the law is explicated in the law itself.]

"Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips" (Ex. 23.13). [This law goes well beyond the first commandment, "You shall have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20.3). It is not invoking other gods that is a sin, but merely uttering their names. This is still monolatry, but one step closer to monotheism. Ironically, though, in the future the divine name itself will become so holy that it cannot be uttered. Both utterly sacred and utterly profane words are forbidden.]

The Annual Festivals: Exodus 23.14-19

There are three festivals to observe every year for God, when all the males shall appear before God:

1. The festival of unleavened bread, with its command to eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib. No one shall come before the Lord empty-handed. [For they left with the riches of the Egyptians.]
2. The festival of the harvest of the first sown fruits.
3. The festival of ingathering at the end of the year, when the fruit is gathered

In extending of the Passover law to the other festivals, the blood of a sacrifice shall not be offered with leavened bread and the fat of festivals [their sacrifices] should not be left until morning.

In accordance with previously established laws regarding the firstborn, the choicest of the first fruits should be brought into the house of God.

Seemingly-misplaced eating regulation between the section on festivals and God's promise of the conquest of Canaan:

"You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk" (Exodus 23.19). [This is a kosher eating regulation].

Tomorrow: God's promise of the conquest of Canaan.