(3.) Neither must they pervert judgment, in prejudice to a poor man, nor suffer him to be wronged, because he had not wherewithal to right himself; in such cases, the judges themselves must become advocates for the poor, as far as their cause was good and honest; v. 6, "Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of the poor; remember they are thy poor, bone of thy bone, thy poor neighbours, thy poor brethren, let them not, therefore, fare the worse for being poor."
(4.) They must dread the thoughts of assisting or abetting a bad cause; v. 7, "Keep thee far from a false matter; do not only keep thee free from it, nor think it enough to say, thou art unconcerned in it, but keep thee far from it, dread it as a dangerous snare. The innocent and righteous thou wouldest not, for all the world, slay with thine own hands; keep thee therefore from a false matter, for thou knowest not but it may end in that; and the righteous God will not leave such wickedness to go unpunished. I will not justify the wicked," that is, "I will condemn him that unjustly condemns others." Judges themselves are accountable to the Great Judge.
(5.) They must not take bribes, v. 8. They must not only not be swayed by a gift to give an unjust judgment, either to condemn the innocent, or acquit the guilty, or adjudge a man's right from him; but they must not so much as take a gift, lest it should have a bad influence upon them, and over-rule them, contrary to their intentions, for it has a strange tendency to blind those that otherwise would do well.
(6.) They must not oppress a stranger, v. 9. Though aliens might not inherit lands among them, yet they must have justice done them, must peaceably enjoy their own, and be righted if they were wronged, though they were strangers to the commonwealth of Israel. It is an instance of the equity and goodness of our law, that, if an alien be tried for any crime except treason, the one half of his jury, if he desire it, shall be foreigners; they call it a trial per medictatem linguae, a kind provision that strangers may not be oppressed. The reason here given is the same with that, (ch. 22. 21.) Ye were strangers; which is here elegantly enforced, Ye know the heart of a stranger; ye know something of the griefs and fears of a stranger, by sad experience, and therefore, being delivered, can the more easily put your souls into their souls' stead.
II. Commands concerning neighbourly kindnesses; we must be ready to do all good offices, as there is occasion for any body, yea, even for those who have done us ill offices, v. 4, 5. The command of loving our enemies, and doing good to them that hate us, is not only a new, but an old, commandment, Prov. 25. 21, 22. Infer from hence, 1. If we must do this kindness for an enemy, much more for a friend, though an enemy only is mentioned, because it is supposed that a man would not be unneighbourly to any, unless such as he has a particular spleen against. 2. If it be wrong not to prevent our enemy's loss and damage, how much worse is it to occasion harm and loss to him, or any thing he has. 3. If we must bring back our neighbours' cattle when they go astray, much more must we endeavour, by prudent admonitions and instructions, to bring back our neighbours themselves, when they go astray in any sinful path. See Jam. 5. 19. And if we must endeavour to help up a fallen ass, much more should we endeavour, by comforts and encouragements, to help up a sinking spirit, saying to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong. We must seek the relief and welfare of others as our own, Phil. 2. 4. If thou sayest, Behold, we know it not, doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? See Prov. 24. 11, 12.
10. And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: 11. But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they . leave, the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy olive-yard. 12. Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest; that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed. 13. And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the names of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. 14. Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. 15. Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt; and none shall appear before me empty:) 16. And the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of in-gathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field. 17. Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord God. 18. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning. 19. The first of the first-fruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.
Here is,
I. The institution of the sabbatical year, v. 10, 11. Every seventh year the land was to rest; they must not plough or sow it at the beginning of the year, and then they could not expect any great harvest at the end of the year; but what the earth did produce of itself should be eaten from hand to mouth, and not laid up. Now this was designed, 1. To show what a plentiful land that was into which God was bringing them—that so numerous a people could have rich maintenance out of the produce of so small a country, without foreign trade, and yet could spare the increase of every seventh year. 2. To remind them of their dependence upon God their great Landlord, and their obligation to use the fruit of the land as he should direct. Thus he would try their obedience in a matter that nearly touched their interest. Afterward we find that their disobedience to this command was a forfeiture of the promises, 2 Chron. 36. 21. 3. To teach them a confidence in the Divine Providence, while they did their duty; that, as the sixth day's manna served for two days' meat, so the sixth year's increase should serve for two years' subsistence. Thus they must learn not to take thought for their life, Matt. 6. 25. If we are prudent and diligent in our affairs, we may trust Providence to furnish us with the bread of the day in its day.
II. The repetition of the law of the fourth commandment concerning the weekly sabbath, v. 12.
