Exo 23 | TNotes | STEP | Summary for Exod 23:1-9: 23:1-9 This call for justice includes a miscellaneous list of covenant requirements, most of which have to do with fairness and integrity. Summary for Exod 23:1-3: 23:1-3 It is necessary to give true witness, even under the pressure of evil people (23:1 ), the crowd (23:2 ), or misguided motives (23:3 , 7-8 ).

Summary for Exod 23:1-9: 23:1-9 ^a This call for justice includes a miscellaneous list of covenant requirements, most of which have to do with fairness and integrity.
Summary for Exod 23:1-3: 23:1-3 ^b It is necessary to give true witness, even under the pressure of evil people (23:1 ^c), the crowd (23:2 ^d), or misguided motives (23:3 ^e, 7-8 ^f).
23:7 ^g God’s character is the motive for righteous behavior (see 22:22-24 ^h, 27 ⁱ).
Summary for Exod 23:10-12: 23:10-12 ^j Renewal, rest (23:12 ^k), and refreshment are important. Just as humans and animals are to enjoy these in the weekly Sabbath, so the land is to be given rest every seven years (23:10-11 ^l; see study note on 20:8-11).
Summary for Exod 23:14-17: 23:14-17 ^m God’s command was that every man in Israel must appear before ... the Lord (23:17 ⁿ), that is, at the Tabernacle, three times each year. While all the people were camped around the Tabernacle in the wilderness, this requirement did not create any problems. Later, when the people were dispersed throughout the land at a distance from the Tabernacle (later the Temple), it was more difficult. The stipulation seems to have been intended to keep the people from building local worship centers, which would splinter them as a people and allow for pagan influences on the worship of Yahweh. Sadly, these stipulations were not carefully carried out (see, e.g., 2 Kgs 23:21-23 ^o).
23:15 ^p appointed time in early spring, in the month of Abib: See 13:4-5 ^q; Lev 23:5-8 ^r; Deut 16:1-8 ^s.
23:16 ^t The Festival of Harvest was celebrated seven weeks after Passover, around the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest (mid-May to mid-June). In postbiblical Judaism, this festival commemorated the giving of the Sinai covenant, which was calculated to have occurred fifty days after the first Passover in Egypt (see Lev 23:15-21 ^u; Deut 16:9-12 ^v).

• The Festival of the Final Harvest was celebrated on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar (mid-September to mid-October), after the final harvest of grapes was complete. This festival commemorated the wilderness wanderings when God provided for his people.
23:18 ^w Blood symbolized life (Lev 17:11-14 ^x; Deut 12:23 ^y), so blood must not be mixed with yeast, which was not normally included in offerings (see study note on Lev 2:11).

• The fat, considered the best part of the offering, was to be burned at once (see Lev 3:3-5 ^z).
23:19 ^aa The significance of the command not to cook a young goat in its mother’s milk is unknown. Its inclusion at this point suggests that it may have been a pagan religious practice.
Summary for Exod 23:20-33: 23:20-33 ^ab If the people kept the covenant stipulations just listed, the Covenant Lord agreed to protect them from enemies (23:22-23 ^ac) and from illness (23:25-26 ^ad) and give them a land to possess (23:27-31 ^ae). These covenant promises were contingent upon absolute loyalty to the Covenant Lord. In particular, it would be an act of rebellion (23:21 ^af) to worship the gods (23:24 ^ag, 32-33 ^ah) of the dispossessed peoples.
Summary for Exod 23:20-23: 23:20-23 ^ai an angel: Probably the “angel of the Lord,” who was often a manifestation of the Lord himself (see 3:2 ^aj).
23:24 ^ak In Canaanite worship, sacred pillars were erected to represent the deities. Sometimes they would have a human likeness carved on them.
23:26 ^al Pagan rites were carried out in an attempt to manipulate the forces of fertility and reproduction. God promised to give these gifts freely if the people would faithfully carry out the terms of their covenant with him.
Summary for Exod 23:29-31: 23:29-31 ^am I will: God, not Israel, would take the land. The land would be a gift from their Covenant Lord. Israel was being granted possession of it as long as they faithfully fulfilled the covenant.
23:31 ^an from the eastern wilderness to the Euphrates River: See Gen 15:18 ^ao; Num 34:2-12 ^ap; Deut 11:24 ^aq; 2 Chr 9:26 ^ar.

• I will hand over to you the people: God had promised the land to Abraham (Gen 15:16 ^as). At that time, “the sins of the Amorites” had not yet run their course. Now they had. God was not arbitrarily dispossessing the Amorites (i.e., the Canaanites) but was using his people, the Israelites, to judge their wickedness.
23:33 ^at they will cause you to sin against me: The Canaanites were to be destroyed because there could be no truce between a holy God and sin. Furthermore, the continuance of God’s revelation, which was to culminate in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, depended on the survival of that revelation through the people of Israel. If they fell back into paganism, that could not happen.