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Exodus 23

God orders Israel’s public life and worship under his authority, joining commands for justice with promises and warnings about the land.

God continues giving Israel laws through Moses, beginning with truthful testimony and justice that resists pressure from crowds or bribes. He commands help for an enemy’s animals and protection for foreigners, then sets out rest for land and workers alongside annual feasts. The chapter closes with a promise: God will send an angel ahead of Israel and drive out the land’s inhabitants over time. Israel must obey his voice and refuse the worship of other gods.

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1“You shall not spread a false report. Don’t join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness.
2“You shall not follow a crowd to do evil. You shall not testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice.
3You shall not favor a poor man in his cause.
4“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.
5If you see the donkey of him who hates you fallen down under his burden, don’t leave him. You shall surely help him with it.
6“You shall not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.
7“Keep far from a false charge, and don’t kill the innocent and righteous; for I will not justify the wicked.
8“You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.
9“You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien, since you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
11but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the animal of the field shall eat. In the same way, you shall deal with your vineyard and with your olive grove.
12“Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant, and the alien may be refreshed.
13“Be careful to do all things that I have said to you; and don’t invoke the name of other gods or even let them be heard out of your mouth.
14“You shall observe a feast to me three times a year.
15You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it you came out of Egypt), and no one shall appear before me empty.
16And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you sow in the field; and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors out of the field.
17Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD.
18“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. The fat of my feast shall not remain all night until the morning.
19You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of the LORD your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
20“Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
21Pay attention to him, and listen to his voice. Don’t provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience, for my name is in him.
22But if you indeed listen to his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary to your adversaries.
23For my angel shall go before you, and bring you in to the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I will cut them off.
24You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor follow their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow them and demolish their pillars.
25You shall serve the LORD your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you.
26No one will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days.
27I will send my terror before you, and will confuse all the people to whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
28I will send the hornet before you, which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you.
29I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the animals of the field multiply against you.
31I will set your border from the Red Sea even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.
32You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
33They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Exodus 23:27God promises to throw Israel’s enemies into confusion, placing the conquest under his initiative and power.
Exodus 23:2The ban on following a crowd locates responsibility for truthful testimony with each witness, even under public pressure.
Exodus 23:22The promise of protection is tied to hearing the angel’s voice and obeying what God commands.
Where this chapter reaches

Deuteronomy and Leviticus share laws about impartial justice, care for foreigners, and appointed times of rest and worship. Genesis shares the promise of land, while Joshua recounts Israel’s entry into that land and the fear that falls on its inhabitants.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

Which command about justice challenges how you respond when a crowd has already taken sides?

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What do the rest commands reveal about whose needs God requires Israel to notice?

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Questions people ask about Exodus 23

Who is the angel in Exodus 23?

God sends the angel to guard Israel and lead them into the prepared land. The angel bears God’s name, and Israel must obey his voice. The passage gives him divine authority without naming him. Some Christians identify him with the preincarnate Christ, though the chapter does not state that identification.

Does Exodus 23:26 promise that Christians will never miscarry or be infertile?

Verse 26 addresses Israel as a covenant people entering the promised land. Its promise belongs with the surrounding pledges of food, health, and protection tied to Israel’s obedience. The chapter does not give each Christian a guarantee against miscarriage or infertility, or grounds for blaming someone who suffers either.

Why does Exodus 23 say not to favor a poor person?

Verse 3 forbids favoring a poor person in a lawsuit, while verse 6 forbids denying poor people justice. Together, these commands require fair judgment regardless of wealth. The same section rejects false charges and bribes. Elsewhere in the chapter, God commands provision for poor people through the land’s seventh-year rest.

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What the Bible says about anger →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).