Year of the Bible

Access your family's weekly resource for the Year of the Bible HERE

Commentary on the Book of Exodus, Chapter 23:

God wraps up His laws for a just society and then turns to laws about worship. God emphasizes the importance of rest by requiring the people to keep the sabbath every seventh day and every seventh year. Next, God provides a quick preview of some of the annual festivals and rituals that will be explained in greater detail in the Book of Leviticus. Finally, God explains what is to come: His people, who are currently living in the wilderness as nomads, will be led by an angel to the Promised Land. When they arrive, God will remove their enemies who live there. This will allow God’s people to live in prosperity and peace, focused on worshipping the true God.

The Book of Exodus, Chapter 23:

Laws concerning Justice

23 “You shall not utter a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man, to be a malicious witness. 2 You shall not follow a multitude to do evil; nor shall you bear witness in a suit, turning aside after a multitude, so as to pervert justice; 3 nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his suit. 
4 “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. 5 If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it, you shall help him to lift it up.
6 “You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his suit. 7 Keep far from a false charge, and do not slay the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. 8 And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the officials, and subverts the cause of those who are in the right. 
9 “You shall not oppress a stranger; you know the heart of a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. 

The Sabbatical Year and the Sabbath

10 “For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield; 11 but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild beasts may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard. 
12 “Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your maidservant, and the alien, may be refreshed. 13 Take heed to all that I have said to you; and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let such be heard out of your mouth. 

Annual Feasts

14 “Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. 15 You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread; as I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed. 16 You shall keep the feast of harvest, of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the feast of ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. 17 Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord GOD. 
18 “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, or let the fat of my feast remain until the morning. 
19 “The first of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. 
   “You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk. 

The Conquest of Canaan Promised

20 “Behold, I send an angel before you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place which I have prepared. 21 Give heed to him and listen to his voice, do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; for my name is in him. 
22 “But if you listen attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 
23 “When my angel goes before you, and brings you in to the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, 24 you shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. 25 You shall serve the LORD your God, and I will bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of you. 26 None shall cast her young or be barren in your land; I will fulfil the number of your days. 27 I will send my terror before you, and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28 And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out Hivite, Canaanite, and Hittite from before you. 29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you are increased and possess the land. 31 And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. 32 You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. 33 They 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.”

*Daily Lectio Divina Question:

As I ponder the words of these laws given by you, Lord, I pause to reflect on any laws that strike me in some way...And I thank you Lord, for giving us laws that direct my life to greatness.

Biblical Commentary provided by the Catholic Biblical School of Michigan. Join a Catholic Biblical School of Michigan class this September at Holy Family in Grand Blanc or online.

Revised Standard Version; Second Catholic Edition. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006).
Permission to use the RSV-2CE given for Bishop's Year of the Bible by Ignatius Press. Many thanks to Ignatius for this.
If you're looking for a good Catholic edition of the Bible, look no further.