Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 22-24.

I am not quite sure exactly what all I am going to write today, my thoughts on today’s passage are not a coherent whole.  But I will start with verse 28 in chapter 22, which the translators chose to render as “Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people.”  In the translator notes it says that another possible translation would be “Do not revile the judges or curse the ruler of your people.”  Considering the context, I prefer this alternate translation.  I believe the command not to blaspheme God exists in enough other places that reading this as saying something else does not diminish our understanding that blasphemy violates God’s commands.  Also, I find my reading of this verse challenges my actions and words more than that chosen by the translators.  I am not tempted to blaspheme God, but I am tempted to revile the judges of my nation from time to time.  Whether I agree with their decisions, or the logic which they use to reach it, I need to work to respect them for the office God has put them into even if I do not believe they are godly people.  I need to remember that those in positions of government authority are in those positions because they are the people whom God desires to hold those positions.  God may have chosen them because of their wickedness, because those over whom they have authority have behaved wickedly, but God has chosen them and we must honor the position which He has given them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 22-24.

I am never quite sure what to write on this passage, but I am also always struck by the laws of what I consider basic justice contained in this passage:

• Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner
• Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless
• Do not spread false reports
• Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong
• Do not show favoritism to the poor
• Do not deny justice to the poor

There are a few more, but the first two and the last two I listed above give us an important reminder about what true justice is.  True justice rejects the idea of using the fact that we have greater power than others to deprive them of they are due, and it neither favors the poor over the well-to-do, nor does it allow the wealthy to use their wealth to escape accountability for their wrongdoing.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 22-24.

Every year when I read this I search for what I want to write.   Unlike some passages it is not that I have trouble finding meaning in the passage.  Instead. I find that the commands given here do not easily get summed up in the few words I write in my blog each day.    After going over it a couple of times I had decided where I was going to start, but as I went back over the passage to find the exact verses I wanted to comment on I came across something someone had made a passing comment on that I found interesting.

In verse 22:18 it says, “Do not allow a sorceress to live.”  A few weeks ago someone told me that the Hebrew word translated there as sorceress would be better translated as “poisoner”, and that such a translation would make more sense.  I do not know Hebrew, so I did a little Internet searching this morning to see if that was true.  I found two separate lines of commentary related to that.  One set of sources supported that idea by comparing the Hebrew word to similar words in other ancient languages which are related to Hebrew.  This line of reasoning concluded that the word could be translated as “herbalist”, but with connotations which implied evil in a way which would be consistent with “poisoner”.  The other set of sources claimed the Hebrew word meant “mutterer of charms”.  They supported this by showing how it related to other Hebrew words used in the Bible.  Considering that I have never seen the passage translated as anything other than as “sorceress” or a word synonymous with sorceress, I believe the second line of reasoning is correct.  More importantly, the second line of reasoning connected this instance of the word, where the Hebrew word is feminine, with instances of a masculine form of the word (which have similar levels of condemnation for those who fall into this category).

I meant to write about the above and then go on to something else, but that took longer to flesh out than I expected.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 22-24.

Today’s passage continues from yesterday with the laws God gave Moses about how the Israelites were to order their society.  I want to highlight a point made in chapter 23.  Justice should not be slanted either in favor of or against the poor.   Scattered throughout the passage are multiple instructions which paint a picture of taking personal responsibility to help those around us.  One of the laws warns us against falsely accusing others of wrongdoing.  While the context of that particular verse suggests it is talking about doing so before the authorities, it seems to me to also cover falsely accusing someone of wrongdoing to other people.  Another verse tells us that if our enemy’s valuable animal has strayed and we find it, we should return it.  Taken all together, justice should be meted out evenly to the rich and the poor, to those we like and those we dislike, everyone should be treated with respect and dignity.  If we take advantage of those who cannot defend their own interests, God will step in.  If we see those who cannot defend their own interests being taken advantage of, we should defend their interests as best we can.