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produce is considered (vers. 5, 6). After that, loss or damage of whathad been
entrusted for safe keeping (vers. 7-15), and along with it loss of honor (vers. 16, 17)
aredealt with.
The statutes which follow (vers. 18-30) are quite different in character from those
which hadpreceded. This appears even from the omission of the "if," by which all the
previous ordinances hadbeen introduced. In truth, they do not contemplate, as the
others, any possible case, but they stateand ordain what must never be allowed to take
place. They are beyond the province of ordinary civillegislation, and concern Israel as
being specially the people of Gad. As such they express whatJehovah expects from
His own people, bound to Him by covenant. And this, perhaps, is the mostwonderful
part of the legislation, regulating and ordering what no civil rule has ever sought
toinfluence. As before, the series of statutes begins by interdicting what is contrary to
theGod-consecrated character of the nation. Thus, at the outset all magic is
exterminated (ver. 18), andwith it all unnatural crimes (ver. 19), and idolatrous
practices (ver. 20). In short, as before inworship, so now in life, heathenism, its
powers, its vileness, and its corruptions are swept aside. Onthe other hand, in
opposition to all national exclusiveness, the stranger (though not the strange god) isto
be kindly welcomed (ver. 21); widows and the fatherless are not to be "humiliated"
(vers.22-24); those in temporary need not to be vexed by usury (vers. 25-27); God as
the supremeLawgiver is not to be reviled, nor yet are those appointed to rule under
Him to be cursed (ver. 28);the tribute due to the Lord as King is to be cheerfully given
(vers. 29, 30); and the holy dignity of Hispeople not to be profaned even in their daily
habits (ver. 31).
Again, nothing that is untrue, unloving, or unjust is to be said, done, or attempted
(23:1-3), and thatnot merely in public dealings, but personal dislike is not to influence
conduct. On the contrary, allloving help is to be given even to an enemy in time of
need (vers. 4, 5); the poor and persecuted arenot to be unjustly dealt with; no bribe is
to be taken, "for the gift maketh open eyes blind, andperverteth the causes of the
righteous," and the same rule is to apply to the stranger as to Israel(vers. 6-9). Finally
in this connection, the seventh year's and the seventh day's rest are referred to,not so
much in their religious character as in their bearing upon the poor and the workers
(vers.10-12).
Passing from the statutes fixing the civil and social position of all in Israel to their
religious positionrelatively to Jehovah, (Exodus 23:13-19) we have first of all an
injunction of the three great annualfeasts. Although strictly religious festivals, they are
here viewed, primarily, not in their symbolical andtypical meaning (which is universal
and eternal), but in their national bearing: the paschal feast as thatof Israel's
deliverance from Egypt, the feast of weeks as that "of harvest, the first fruit of thy
labors,"and the feast of tabernacles as that of final "ingathering" (vers. 14-17). Of the
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