Exodus 23:4 Commentary: Loving Your Enemy Through Stray Livestock

Exodus 23:4 sits within the Covenant Code (Exodus 21, 23), a collection of laws given at Sinai after the Ten Commandments. The immediate surrounding verses (vv. 1, 3, 6, 9) regulate courtroom conduct: truthful witness, no partiality to rich or poor. Then vv. 4, 5 pivot to the domain of everyday life, the field and the road. This shift has led some to question whether these verses originally belonged here; the Cambridge Bible notes they seem to interrupt the judicial sequence. Yet the logic holds: justice is not only for the courtroom. True righteousness extends to how you treat your enemy's property.

In an ancient agrarian society, an ox or donkey was a family's livelihood, plowing, hauling, transport. To let one wander off was to risk serious financial loss. Custom in the ancient Near East would not have required a person to help an enemy recover such loss. But Israel's law raised the bar: you will help, and you will do so without hesitation. The doubled verb (infinitive absolute + finite verb), hashēv teshīvennu, “you will surely return it”, leaves no loophole. The command is absolute, not optional.

The word for “enemy” (ʼôyēv) can refer to a personal foe or a national adversary. Context suggests a personal enemy, perhaps someone with whom you have a legal or social quarrel. The law did not require you to feel affection, but it required action. That action, returning a stray beast, was concrete, costly, and visible to the community. It was a public demonstration that vengeance belongs to God and that mercy toward an enemy is the path of covenant faithfulness.

The supplied sources note no significant textual variants for Exodus 23:4. The Hebrew manuscripts are consistent regarding the infinitive absolute construction (hashēv) and the word order. The LXX and Targumim render the sense faithfully. The verse is stable in the tradition.

Jewish tradition read this command as part of the duty to restore lost property, expanded in Deuteronomy 22:1, 4. The Talmud applies it even to animals of one's enemy, emphasizing that the command to return is not abrogated by personal hostility. Early Christian fathers such as Tertullian and Augustine saw this as a moral law that prefigured the evangelical counsel to love enemies. In the Reformation, Calvin used it to argue that Christians must be “pitiful and humane to show kindness to all,” including the unworthy. Modern commentators across denominations consistently cite it as a foundational Old Testament witness to the ethic of enemy love.

Three-point outline

1. God’s command interrupts our natural instincts. The human impulse is to let an enemy suffer loss. The law says: stop, turn around, and restore what is not yours to withhold.
2. Active love transcends passive non-harm. Not only may you not murder your enemy; you must recover his donkey. The call goes beyond restraint to positive action.
3. This law prepares the way for Christ. Jesus’ command to love enemies (Matthew 5:44) is not new law; it is the heart of the old law fully expressed. The seed is planted here in Israel’s fields.

Five-point outline

1. Encounter: the meeting with the stray animal is unexpected, ordinary, and unavoidable, no advance planning.
2. Identity: the owner is your enemy, someone you have reason to hate. The law names the hardest case.
3. Action: you must bring it back. Not report it, not wait for the owner to claim it, physically return it.
4. Cost: this takes time, effort, and investment. Doing good to an enemy is never convenient.
5. Context: this command sits among laws about justice, witness, and impartiality. Helping an enemy is a form of justice, not optional charity.

Illustration hooks

• Picking up a neighbor’s bin: Your neighbor’s trash can blows into the street after he complained about your dog. You could leave it; you take it back to his driveway.
• Returning a wallet: You find a wallet with cash belonging to a business competitor who undercut you. Returning it costs you nothing but costs your pride.
• Social media scenario: Someone you unfriended posts they lost their car keys. You could scroll on; instead you send a private message of practical help.

Questions your congregation is asking

• “Does this mean I have to be friends with everyone, even people who hurt me?”
• “Isn't helping an enemy a form of enabling their bad behavior?”
• “How can I find the strength to do this without being fake or resentful?”

This command is part of God’s instruction for a community that belongs to Him. It shows that true holiness touches every relationship, even with those we oppose. The small act of returning a lost animal becomes a training ground for the heart. As you read the passage and the cross-references, consider what this reveals about God’s character and what it demands of His people.

Discussion questions

1. What was your immediate reaction when you read this verse? Did it feel surprising or familiar?
2. Why do you think the law specifies “your enemy’s ox or donkey” rather than a neutral neighbor’s animal? What does that tell us about God’s concern?
3. The Hebrew repeats the verb “bring back” in an emphatic form. How does that emphasis affect how seriously we should take this command?
4. Read Proverbs 25:21 and Matthew 5:44. How does the Old Testament command connect to Jesus’ teaching? Is it the same principle or a different one?
5. Think of a person you would consider an “enemy” (whether personal or political). What might returning their “stray ox” look like in your life today?
6. What obstacles, fear, pride, busyness, keep us from actively helping those we dislike? How can the gospel address those obstacles?
7. How might this kind of small, practical kindness shape your heart toward that person over time?