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| 1 'Thou dost not lift up a vain report; thou dost not put thy hand with a wicked man to be a violent witness. |
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| 2 'Thou art not after many to evil, nor dost thou testify concerning a strife, to turn aside after many to cause [others] to turn aside; |
Not follow a multitude – The difficulty is that the whole world is running on the depraved basis of selfishiness which is quite incongruous to love. D525; R2033:1
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| 3 and a poor man thou dost not honour in his strife. |
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| 4 'When thou meetest thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou dost certainly turn it back to him; |
Thine enemy's ox – If such love was obligatory upon natural Israel, to what degree should spiritual Israel possess and manifest it. R5643:6
The Mosaic Law was far ahead of its time. A50
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| 5 when thou seest the ass of him who is hating thee crouching under its burden, then thou hast ceased from leaving [it] to it thou dost certainly leave [it] with him. |
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| 6 'Thou dost not turn aside the judgment of thy needy one in his strife; |
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| 7 from a false matter thou dost keep far off, and an innocent and righteous man thou dost not slay; for I do not justify a wicked man. |
Justify the wicked – But he has provided a way in which he can be just, and yet justify. (Rom. 3:26) HG308:2
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| 8 'And a bribe thou dost not take; for the bribe bindeth the open-[eyed], and perverteth the words of the righteous. |
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| 9 'And a sojourner thou dost not oppress, and ye ye have known the soul of the sojourner, for sojourners ye have been in the land of Egypt. |
Oppress a stranger – The treatment of servants, strangers and the aged was the subject of special legislation, but there was none for the priesthood. A52
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| 10 'And six years thou dost sow thy land, and hast gathered its increase; |
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| 11 and the seventh thou dost release it, and hast left it, and the needy of thy people have eaten, and their leaving doth the beast of the field eat; so dost thou to thy vineyard to thine olive-yard. |
The seventh year- Israel's year Sabbath typified a coming blessing to the world. OV250:5
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| 12 'Six days thou dost do thy work, and on the seventh day thou dost rest, so that thine ox and thine ass doth rest, and the son of thine handmaid and the sojourner is refreshed; |
Thou shalt rest – The Mosaic Law was far ahead of its time. A50
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| 13 and in all that which I have said unto you ye do take heed; and the name of other gods ye do not mention; it is not heard on thy mouth.
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| 14 'Three times thou dost keep a feast to Me in a year; |
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| 15 the Feast of Unleavened things thou dost keep; seven days thou dost eat unleavened things, as I have commanded thee, at the time appointed [in] the month of Abib; for in it thou hast come forth out of Egypt, and ye do not appear [in] My presence empty; |
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| 16 and the Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of thy works which thou sowest in the field; and the Feast of the In-Gathering, in the outgoing of the year, in thy gathering thy works out of the field. |
Feast of ingathering – The Feast of Tabernacles. R3509:1
The festival of the New Year and a thanksgiving occasion for the harvest. R3509:1
Instituted at the time Israel passed from the wilderness into the land of promise, commemorating the wilderness life and the entrance into Canaan. R3509:1
In the end of the year – There were two harvests: the first, of grain, in the spring, representing "Christ, and they that are Christ's at his coming"; (1 Cor. 15:23) the other, or great harvest, was at the end of the year. HG83:1
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| 17 'Three times in a year do all thy males appear before the face of the Lord Jehovah. |
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| 18 'Thou dost not sacrifice on a fermented thing the blood of My sacrifice, and the fat of My festival doth not remain till morning; |
With leavened bread – Leaven is corruption, an element of decay, hence a type of sin. R5192:4; F464; T98
Shall the fat – Symbol of loving zeal. T57
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| 19 the beginning of the first-fruits of thy ground thou dost bring into the house of Jehovah thy God; thou dost not boil a kid in its mother's milk. |
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| 20 'Lo, I am sending a messenger before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee in unto the place which I have prepared; |
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| 21 be watchful because of his presence, and hearken to his voice, rebel not against him, for he beareth not with your transgression, for My name [is] in his heart; |
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| 22 for, if thou diligently hearken to his voice, and hast done all that which I speak, then I have been at enmity with thine enemies, and have distressed those distressing thee. |
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| 23 'For My messenger goeth before thee, and hath brought thee in unto the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, and I have cut them off. |
Cut them off – A depraved race, whose sins and iniquities had come to the full. Q779:5
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| 24 'Thou dost not bow thyself to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their doings, but dost utterly devote them, and thoroughly break their standing pillars. |
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| 25 'And ye have served Jehovah your God, and He hath blessed thy bread and thy water, and I have turned aside sickness from thine heart; |
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| 26 there is not a miscarrying and barren one in thy land; the number of thy days I fulfil: |
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| 27 My terror I send before thee, and I have put to death all the people among whom thou comest, and I have given the neck of all thine enemies unto thee. |
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| 28 'And I have sent the hornet before thee, and it hath cast out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee; |
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| 29 I cast them not out from before thee in one year, lest the land be a desolation, and the beast of the field hath multiplied against thee; |
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| 30 little [by] little I cast them out from before thee, till thou art fruitful, and hast inherited the land. |
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| 31 'And I have set thy border from the Red Sea, even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness unto the River: for I give into your hand the inhabitants of the land, and thou hast cast them out from before thee; |
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| 32 thou dost not make a covenant with them, and with their gods; |
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| 33 they do not dwell in thy land, lest they cause thee to sin against Me when thou servest their gods, when it becometh a snare to thee.' |
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