2 Do not be moved to do wrong by the general opinion, or give the support of your words to a wrong decision:
My son, do not go with them; keep your feet from their ways:
Let no wrong decisions be given in the poor man's cause. Keep yourselves far from any false business; never let the upright or him who has done no wrong be put to death: for I will make the evil-doer responsible for his sin.
And when the people saw that Moses was a long time coming down from the mountain, they all came to Aaron and said to him, Come, make us a god to go before us: as for this Moses, who took us up out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has become of him. Then Aaron said to them, Take off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters, and give them to me. And all the people took the gold rings from their ears and gave them to Aaron. And he took the gold from them and, hammering it with an instrument, he made it into the metal image of a young ox: and they said, This is your god, O Israel, who took you out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw this, he made an altar before it, and made a public statement, saying, Tomorrow there will be a feast to the Lord.
Do no wrong in your judging: do not give thought to the position of the poor, or honour to the position of the great; but be a judge to your neighbour in righteousness.
In judging, do not let a man's position have any weight with you; give hearing equally to small and great; have no fear of any man, for it is God who is judge: and any cause in which you are not able to give a decision, you are to put before me and I will give it a hearing.
And if it seems evil to you to be the servants of the Lord, make the decision this day whose servants you will be: of the gods whose servants your fathers were across the River, or of the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living: but I and my house will be the servants of the Lord.
For fear of the great body of people, or for fear that families might make sport of me, so that I kept quiet, and did not go out of my door;
My son, if sinners would take you out of the right way, do not go with them. If they say, Come with us; let us make designs against the good, waiting secretly for the upright, without cause;
So when Pilate saw that he was able to do nothing, but that trouble was working up, he took water and, washing his hands before the people, said, The blood of this upright man is not on my hands: you are responsible. And all the people made answer and said, Let his blood be on us, and on our children. Then he let Barabbas go free: but after having Jesus whipped, he gave him up to be put to death on the cross.
But when Cephas came to Antioch, I made a protest against him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. For before certain men came from James, he did take food with the Gentiles: but when they came, he went back and made himself separate, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews went after him, so that even Barnabas was overcome by their false ways.
Who, though they have knowledge of the law of God, that the fate of those who do these things is death, not only go on doing these things themselves, but give approval to those who do them.
But after two years Porcius Festus took the place of Felix, who, desiring to have the approval of the Jews, kept Paul in chains.
Nicodemus--he who had come to Jesus before, being himself one of them--said to them, Is a man judged by our law before it has given him a hearing and has knowledge of what he has done?
But they went on crying out loudly, Let him be put to death on the cross. And they had their way. And Pilate gave his decision for their desire to be put into effect.
And Pilate, desiring to do what was pleasing to the people, let Barabbas go free, and gave up Jesus, when he had been whipped, to be put to death on the cross.
And the Lord said to Noah, Take all your family and go into the ark, for you only in this generation have I seen to be upright.
But before they had gone to bed, the men of the town, all the men of Sodom, came round the house, young and old, from every part of the town;
And he said, My brothers, do not this evil. See now, I have two unmarried daughters; I will send them out to you so that you may do to them whatever seems good to you: only do nothing to these men, for this is why they have come under the shade of my roof. And they said, Give way there. This one man, they said, came here from a strange country, and will he now be our judge? now we will do worse to you than to them; and pushing violently against Lot, they came near to get the door broken in.
Then all the people gave load cries of grief, and all that night they gave themselves up to weeping. And all the children of Israel, crying out against Moses and Aaron, said, If only we had come to our death in the land of Egypt, or even in this waste land! Why is the Lord taking us into this land to come to our death by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will get into strange hands: would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? And they said to one another, Let us make a captain over us, and go back to Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron went down on their faces before the meeting of the people. And Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, two of those who had been to see the land, giving signs of grief, Said to all the children of Israel, This land which we went through to see is a very good land. And if the Lord has delight in us, he will take us into this land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. Only, do not go against the Lord or go in fear of the people of the land, for they will be our food; their strength has been taken from them and the Lord is with us: have no fear of them. But all the people said they were to be stoned. Then the glory of the Lord was seen in the Tent of meeting, before the eyes of all the children of Israel.
You are not to be moved in your judging by a man's position, you are not to take rewards; for rewards make the eyes of the wise man blind, and the decisions of the upright false.
But Saul and the people did not put Agag to death, and they kept the best of the sheep and the oxen and the fat beasts and the lambs, and whatever was good, not desiring to put them to the curse: but everything which was bad and of no use they put to the curse.
And he said, I have been burning for the honour of the Lord, the God of armies; for the children of Israel have not kept your agreement; they have made destruction of your altars, and have put your prophets to death with the sword: till I, even I, am the only one living; and now they are attempting to take away my life.
Do not go in the road of sinners, or be walking in the way of evil men.
And the rulers were angry with Jeremiah, and gave him blows and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they had made that the prison.
Then by the order of Zedekiah the king, Jeremiah was put into the place of the armed watchmen, and they gave him every day a cake of bread from the street of the bread-makers, till all the bread in the town was used up. So Jeremiah was kept in the place of the armed watchmen.
Then Zedekiah the king said, See, he is in your hands: for the king was not able to do anything against them. So they took Jeremiah and put him into the water-hole of Malchiah, the king's son, in the place of the armed watchmen: and they let Jeremiah down with cords. And in the hole there was no water, but wet earth: and Jeremiah went down into the wet earth.
My lord the king, these men have done evil in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have put into the water-hole; and he will come to his death in the place where he is through need of food: for there is no more bread in the town.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Exodus 23
Commentary on Exodus 23 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 23
This chapter continues and concludes the acts that passed in the first session (if I may so call it) upon mount Sinai. Here are,
Exd 23:1-9
Here are,
Exd 23:10-19
Here is,
Exd 23:20-33
Three gracious promises are here made to Israel, to engage them to their duty and encourage them in it; and each of the promises has some needful precepts and cautions joined to it.