You shall not deny justice to the poor in their lawsuits.
By this law also, God exhorts His people to exercise the duties of humanity towards brute animals, in order that they may be the more disposed to assist their brethren; for we must bear in memory what Paul teaches, where God commands oxen to be kindly treated, viz., that He does not care so much for them in this, as for mankind.
False witness in a matter touching a man's life combines lying, perjury, malice, theft, and murder all at once, dressed in the pretense of justice. Slandering and backbiting are species of false witness-bearing; the receiver of slander is as culpable as the thief who stole what he spreads.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 23:1-9
Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause. As the poor man was not to be favoured when his cause was bad through an affected pity for him as a poor man, so his judgment was not to be wrested or perverted, when his cause was good, because of his poverty; which is too often the case, through the power of...