I Will Not Justify the Wicked

After warning the Israelites to not pervert justice because of the status of the person, God declared the obligation to show mercy even to our enemies. If your enemy's animal escapes, you have a duty to take that animal back to him. Your duty to him is not dependent upon your relationship with him. The law commands that we show mercy to our enemies. In last week's passage, we were warned to not be biased toward the poor. In this week's passage, we are commanded to not pervert the judgment of the poor by delaying it. God warns us to keep far from a false matter, because we should expect His judgment on this earth and not just the world to come. We are warned not to take bribes, because even the discerning and the righteous judgment is affected by bribes. Before God goes into teaching about the Sabbath, He ended this section with you shall not oppress the stranger. All these laws are about making our behavior toward someone about our relationship with them, rather than about their connection to God. Not in a salvific sense, but in the sense that we are required to treat people in a certain way, because they are made in the image of God. Their poverty, their relationship with us or their being part of the community should not affect whether we treat them justly.