Exodus 23:3

Summary

Exodus 23:3 instructs that a poor person, identified by the adjective dal ("a poor [person]", H1800), is not to be given special treatment — expressed by the verb tehdar ("you must show partiality", H1921) — within the context of his legal dispute, rivo ("his case at law", H7379 + H9023).

Key words

• dal ("a poor [person]", H1800) — masculine singular adjective functioning as the object of concern; it names the social status (poverty) that must not affect judicial treatment.
• lo' ("not", H3808) — the standard negation particle, here negating the imperfect verb to form a prohibition.
• tehdar ("you must show partiality", H1921) — Qal imperfect, second person masculine singular. The root H1921 carries the sense of "to honor," "to favor," or "to give deference to," rather than a general notion of pity.
• riv ("case at law", H7379) — masculine singular noun in construct state, meaning it is bound to the following suffix; construct nouns in Hebrew take their specific meaning from the word attached to them.
• o ("his", H9023) — pronominal suffix attached to riv, producing rivo, "his case/dispute," anchoring the abstract noun to the specific poor individual mentioned earlier.

What the text says

The Hebrew clause is short and tightly constructed: subject-marker ve-dal ("and a poor person") is placed first, giving it topical prominence, followed by the negated verb lo' tehdar, and closing with the prepositional phrase be-rivo ("in his case"). This word order foregrounds the poor person as the object of concern before stating the prohibition, a common pattern in Biblical Hebrew legal instruction where the affected party is named first.

The verb tehdar (H1921) is built on a root associated with "honoring" or "showing deference," the same root that in other contexts describes honoring elders or superiors. Its use here in a negative construction indicates that the poor person's status is not to be used as a basis for special deference in a legal proceeding — the term does not inherently mean "show mercy" but rather "grant favorable distinction." The noun riv (H7379) specifically denotes a legal dispute or controversy, and the construct form with the suffix -o ties the case directly to the poor individual introduced at the start of the verse.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the verb as ἐλεήσεις ("you will have mercy/pity"), and the Vulgate similarly uses misereberis ("you will pity"), both shifting the semantic field from "showing honor/partiality" (the sense of Hebrew tehdar, H1921) toward "showing pity" or "having mercy." The Hebrew verb does not carry this emotional/compassionate connotation but rather concerns deferential treatment based on social status within judicial procedure.