What Does Exodus 23:4 Mean?

(4) **Thine enemy’s ox.**—The general duty of stopping stray animals and restoring them to friendly owners, expressly taught in Deuteronomy 22:1-3, is here implied as if admitted on all hands. The legislator extends this duty to cases where the owner is our personal enemy. It was not generally recognised in antiquity that men’s enemies had any claims upon them. Cicero, indeed, says—“Sunt autem quædam officia etiam adversus eos servanda, a quibus injuriam aceeperis” (*De Off. i.* 11); but he stops short of enjoining active benevolence. Here and in Exodus 23:5 we have a sort of anticipation of Christianity—active kindness to an enemy being required, even when it costs us some trouble. The principle of friendliness is involved—the germ which in Christianity blossoms out into the precept, “Love your enemies.”