Exodus Chapter 23 verse 4 Holy Bible
If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.
read chapter 23 in ASV
If you come across the ox or the ass of one who is no friend to you wandering from its way, you are to take it back to him.
read chapter 23 in BBE
-- If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt certainly bring it back to him.
read chapter 23 in DARBY
If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.
read chapter 23 in KJV
If thou shalt meet thy enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.
read chapter 23 in WBT
"If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.
read chapter 23 in WEB
`When thou meetest thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou dost certainly turn it back to him;
read chapter 23 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 4. - Thine enemy's ox. A private enemy is here spoken of, not a public one, as in Deuteronomy 23:6. It is remarkable that the law should have so far anticipated Christianity as to have laid it down that men have duties of friendliness even towards their enemies, and are bound under certain circumstances to render them a service. "Hate thine enemies" (Matthew 5:43) was no injunction of the Mosaic taw, but a conclusion which Rabbinical teachers unwarrantably drew from it. Christianity, however, goes far beyond Mosaism in laying down the broad precept - "Love your enemies."
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(4) Thine enemy's ox.--The general duty of stopping stray animals and restoring them to friendly owners, expressly taught in Deuteronomy 22:1-3, is here implied as if admitted on all hands. The legislator extends this duty to cases where the owner is our personal enemy. It was not generally recognised in antiquity that men's enemies had any claims upon them. Cicero, indeed, says--"Sunt autem quaedam officia etiam adversus eos servanda, a quibus injuriam aceeperis" (De Off. i. 11); but he stops short of enjoining active benevolence. Here and in Exodus 23:5 we have a sort of anticipation of Christianity--active kindness to an enemy being required, even when it costs us some trouble. The principle of friendliness is involved--the germ which in Christianity blossoms out into the precept, "Love your enemies."
