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The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Exodus 23:4

If you encounter your enemy's stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Forgiveness;   Neighbor;   Stray;   Thompson Chain Reference - Animals;   Duty;   Enemies;   Love;   Oxen;   Social Duties;   Social Life;   The Topic Concordance - Enemies;   Help;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Ass, the Domestic;   Enemies;   Love to Man;   Ox, the;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Ethics;   Love;   Revenge;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Golden Rule;   Justice;   Law;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Canaan;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Exodus, Book of;   Judge (Office);   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Agriculture;   Canon of the Old Testament;   Ethics;   Hexateuch;   Law;   Leviticus;   Priests and Levites;   Ten Commandments;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Hating, Hatred;   Kindness (2);   Old Testament (I. Christ as Fulfilment of);   Originality;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Justice;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Astray;   Covenant, the Book of the;   Criticism (the Graf-Wellhausen Hypothesis);   Enemy;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Enemy, Treatment of an;   Ethics;   Forgiveness;   Hammurabi;   Love;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
"If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.
King James Version
If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.
Lexham English Bible
"‘If you come upon the ox of your enemy or his donkey going astray, you will certainly bring it back to him.
New Century Version
"If you see your enemy's ox or donkey wandering away, you must return it to him.
New English Translation
"If you encounter your enemy's ox or donkey wandering off, you must by all means return it to him.
Amplified Bible
"If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey wandering off, you must bring it back to him.
New American Standard Bible
"If you encounter your enemy's ox or his donkey wandering away, you must return it to him.
Geneva Bible (1587)
If thou meete thine enemies oxe, or his asse going astray, thou shalt bring him to him againe.
Legacy Standard Bible
"If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him.
Contemporary English Version
If you find an ox or a donkey that has wandered off, take it back where it belongs, even if the owner is your enemy.
Complete Jewish Bible
"If you come upon your enemy's ox or donkey straying, you must return it to him.
Darby Translation
—If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt certainly bring it back to him.
Easy-to-Read Version
"If you see a lost bull or donkey, then you must return it to its owner—even if the owner is your enemy.
English Standard Version
"If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him.
George Lamsa Translation
If you meet your enemys ox or his ass going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.
Good News Translation
"If you happen to see your enemy's cow or donkey running loose, take it back to him.
Christian Standard Bible®
“If you come across your enemy’s stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him.
Literal Translation
When you happen on the ox of your enemy, or his wandering ass, returning you shall return it to him.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Yf thou mete thine enemies oxe or Asse, goinge astraye, thou shalt brynge the same vnto him agayne.
American Standard Version
If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.
Bible in Basic English
If you come across the ox or the ass of one who is no friend to you wandering from its way, you are to take it back to him.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
If thou meete thyne enemies oxe or asse goyng astray, thou shalt bryng them to him agayne.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.
King James Version (1611)
If thou meete thine enemies oxe or his asse going astray, thou shalt surely bring it backe to him againe.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And if thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt turn them back and restore them to him.
English Revised Version
If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
If thou meetist `the oxe of thin enemye, ethir the asse errynge, lede thou ayen to hym.
Young's Literal Translation
`When thou meetest thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou dost certainly turn it back to him;
Update Bible Version
If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.
Webster's Bible Translation
If thou shalt meet thy enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.
World English Bible
"If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.
New King James Version
"If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.
New Living Translation
"If you come upon your enemy's ox or donkey that has strayed away, take it back to its owner.
New Life Bible
"If you meet a bull or donkey that belongs to a man who hates you, be sure to return the animal to him.
New Revised Standard
When you come upon your enemy's ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it back.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
When thou meetest the ox of thine enemy, or his ass, going astray, thou shalt, surely bring it back, to him.
Douay-Rheims Bible
If thou meet thy enemy’s ox or ass going astray, bring it back to him.
Revised Standard Version
"If you meet your enemy's ox or his ass going astray, you shall bring it back to him.
THE MESSAGE
"If you find your enemy's ox or donkey loose, take it back to him. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you lying helpless under its load, don't walk off and leave it. Help it up.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him.

Contextual Overview

1You shall not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked by being a malicious witness. 2You shall not follow a crowd in wrongdoing. When you testify in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with a crowd. 3And do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit. 4If you encounter your enemy's stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him.5If you see the donkey of one who hates you fallen under its load, do not leave it there; you must help him with it. 6You shall not deny justice to the poor in their lawsuits. 7Stay far away from a false accusation. Do not kill the innocent or the just, for I will not acquit the guilty. 8Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the righteous. 9Do not oppress a foreign resident, since you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Deuteronomy 22:1-4, Job 31:29, Job 31:30, Proverbs 24:17, Proverbs 24:18, Proverbs 25:21, Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27, Luke 6:28, Romans 12:17-21, 1 Thessalonians 5:15

Reciprocal: Leviticus 6:3 - have found Leviticus 19:18 - not avenge Deuteronomy 22:4 - thou shalt surely Matthew 12:11 - and if Luke 10:34 - went Luke 14:5 - Which Romans 12:20 - if thine

Cross-References

Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground-because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return."
Genesis 17:8
And to you and your descendants I will give the land of your sojourn-all the land of Canaan-as an eternal possession; and I will be their God."
Genesis 23:12
Again Abraham bowed down before the people of the land
Genesis 23:13
and said to Ephron in their presence, "If you will please listen to me, I will pay you the price of the field. Accept it from me, so that I may bury my dead there."
Genesis 23:16
Abraham agreed to Ephron's terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the standard of the merchants.
Genesis 47:9
"My travels have lasted 130 years," Jacob replied. "My years have been few and hard, and they have not matched the years of the travels of my fathers."
Genesis 49:30
The cave is in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, in the land of Canaan. This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.
Genesis 50:13
They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.
Leviticus 25:23
The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and sojourners with Me.
1 Chronicles 29:15
For we are foreigners and sojourners in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray,.... Or any other beast, as the Samaritan version adds; for these are only mentioned for instances, as being more common, and creatures subject to go astray; now when such as these are met going astray, so as to be in danger of being lost to the owner, though he is an enemy; or as the Targum of Jonathan,

"whom thou hatest because of a sin, which thou alone knowest in him;''

yet this was not so far to prejudice the finder of his beasts against him, as to be careless about them, to suffer them to go on without acquainting him with them, or returning them to him, as follows:

thou shalt surely bring it back to him again; whether it be an ox, or an ass, or any other beast, the law is very strong and binding upon the finder to return it to his neighbour, though an enemy, and bring it either to his field or to his farm.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

So far was the spirit of the law from encouraging personal revenge that it would not allow a man to neglect an opportunity of saving his enemy from loss.

Exodus 23:5

The sense appears to be: “If thou see the ass of thine enemy lying down under his burden, thou shalt forbear to pass by him; thou shalt help him in loosening the girths of the ass.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 23:4. If thou meet thine enemy's ox - going astray — From the humane and heavenly maxim in this and the following verse, our blessed Lord has formed the following precept: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you;" Matthew 5:44. A precept so plain, wise, benevolent, and useful, can receive no other comment than that which its influence on the heart of a kind and merciful man produces in his life.


 
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