Exodus 23:9

Summary

Exodus 23:9 issues a prohibition against oppressing the ger ("sojourner", H1616), grounding it in the Israelites' own experiential knowledge of the ger's condition, since they themselves were gerim ("sojourners", H1616) in the land of Egypt.

Key words

• Ger ("a sojourner", H1616) — masculine singular noun; appears three times in the verse (once as object, once definite, once plural), forming the verse's core lexical link.
• til.Chatz ("you must oppress", H3905) — qal imperfect, second person masculine; the imperfect aspect marks this as an ongoing or repeated prohibition rather than a single-instance command.
• ye.da'.Tem ("you have known", H3045) — qal perfect, second person masculine plural; the perfect marks completed, established knowledge, contrasting with the imperfect prohibition.
• Ne.fesh ("[the] life of", H5315) — feminine singular construct; construct state ties it directly to ha-Ger ("the sojourner"), producing "the life/soul of the sojourner."
• he.yi.Tem ("you were", H1961) — qal perfect, second person masculine plural; completed past state, used with ki ("for", H3588A) to introduce the causal clause.

What the text says

The verse divides into two clauses joined by ve ("and", H9002). The first clause, ve-ger lo til.Chatz, places the object Ger before the negated verb til.Chatz, a word order that foregrounds the sojourner as the topic of concern before stating what must not be done to him. The verb's imperfect form indicates a general, ongoing prohibition rather than a one-time act.

The second clause shifts to the emphatic pronoun 'a.Tem ("you", H0859D) placed before the perfect verb ye.da'.Tem ("you have known"), which grammatically stresses the subject "you" as the ones possessing this knowledge. The direct object marker 'et (H0853) introduces Ne.fesh ha-Ger ("the life of the sojourner"), a construct phrase linking Ne.fesh directly to the sojourner's condition. The subordinating particle ki (H3588A) then introduces the causal ground: gerim he.yi.Tem be-'Eretz Mitzrayim ("sojourners you were in the land of Egypt"), where gerim is fronted before the verb he.yi.Tem, emphasizing the status "sojourners" itself. Both verbs framing the reasoning — ye.da'.Tem and he.yi.Tem — are perfect forms, marking completed states of knowing and having-been that serve as the basis for the imperfect prohibition.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders til.Chatz with θλίψετε ("you will oppress/afflict"), a future indicative, while the Vulgate uses molestus non eris ("you will not be troublesome"), also future-oriented, differing from the Hebrew imperfect's more general aspect. The LXX also adds αὐτοὶ ("they/you yourselves") before "sojourners," reinforcing the pronoun emphasis found in Hebrew 'a.Tem, while the Vulgate uses et ipsi ("and they themselves") for a similar effect.