Portion 18 of 54 · Exodus
מִשְׁפָּטִים
Mishpatim
Straight after the thunder comes the small print: oxen, pits, lost property, and how you treat someone who has nothing.
Start by reading it
Exodus 21:1–24:18
4 chapters. About 16 minutes at an unhurried pace.
Paired reading from the prophets: Jeremiah 34:8–22; 33:25–26
What happens
- 01
Laws about servants, injury, property, animals, lending and lost things.
- 02
Repeated protection for the stranger, the widow, the orphan and the poor.
- 03
Warnings against false reports, bribes, and following a crowd into wrongdoing.
- 04
The people answer 'we will do and we will hear', and the covenant is sealed with a meal.
The thing most people walk past
Revelation lands in ordinary life
Chapter 20 is fire on a mountain. Chapter 21 is what happens if your ox gores someone. The Bible puts them next to each other on purpose: holiness is worked out in disputes about animals and wages.
One verse to carry
thou not oppress; for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
The reason given is memory. You were there. The Torah keeps grounding its ethics in what the people themselves survived.
A question to sit with
'Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil.' What does that ask of you in a week when everyone around you agrees on something?
There is no answer key. This is the part you take with you.