Exodus 23:5-7

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Exodus 23:5 tn The line reads “you will cease to forsake him”—refrain from leaving your enemy without help.
2. Exodus 23:5 tn The law is emphatic here as well, using the infinitive absolute and the imperfect of instruction (or possibly obligation). There is also a wordplay here: two words עָזַב (ʿazav) are used, one meaning “forsake” and the other possibly meaning “arrange” based on Arabic and Ugaritic evidence (see U. Cassuto, Exodus, 297-98).
3. Exodus 23:5 sn See H. B. Huffmon, “Exodus 23:4-5: A Comparative Study,” A Light Unto My Path, 271-78.
4. Exodus 23:7 tn Or “stay away from,” or “have nothing to do with.”
5. Exodus 23:7 tn Heb “a false matter,” this expression in this context would have to be a case in law that was false or that could only be won by falsehood.
6. Exodus 23:7 tn The two clauses probably should be related: the getting involved in the false charge could lead to the death of an innocent person (so, e.g., Naboth in 1 Kgs 21:10-13).
7. Exodus 23:7 sn God will not declare right the one who is in the wrong. Society should also be consistent, but it cannot see the intents and motives, as God can.