Exodus 22:20-26
Chapter 22
20
You shall not wrong or oppress a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
21
You shall not harm the widow or the orphan.
22
If you do harm them and they cry out to me, I will hear them
23
and my anger will blaze and I will kill you with the sword, and your own wives will be widows and your own children orphans.
24
If you lend money to any of my poor people, do not act like a moneylender and do not charge them interest.
25
If you ever take a person’s cloak as a pledge, you must give it back to him by sunset,
26
for it is all the covering he has for his body. In what else will he sleep? And when he cries to me, I will hear him, for I am full of pity.
Commentaries
Apodictic Legislation (Divine Laws).
The apodictic legislation—that is, a series of imperative commands—actually extends to 23:19. In many ways, it even surpasses the Ten Commandments; by emphasizing the love and mercy owed to one’s neighbor, it goes beyond the mere ethical concern and fairness of the Decalogue. Although the narrative context places us at Sinai during the declaration of the Covenant code, all these commandments and rules presuppose a long history of Israel as a people in the land of Canaan. When Israel reflects on its past, origins, and foundational commitments, it projects those norms onto its roots, considering them necessary to improve its present and, above all, to walk more securely into the future. Some laws reflect great sensitivity and harmony with the will of God (20-26); others, however, may seem unjust or even contrary to God’s will. We cannot separate these laws from their context or judge them by today’s standards. Still, we also cannot cling to the simple idea that God permitted these things because it involved a developing people. God never desired, nor will He ever desire, such things; it is the people’s conscience that projects what they see as God’s will at a specific moment, and God assumes the risk of later appearing “a posteriori” as unjust or insensitive in certain aspects.