Teks -- Exodus 22:28 (NET)

22:28 “You must not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people.

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Wesley: Exo 22:28 - Thou shalt not revile the gods

That is, the judges and magistrates. Princes and magistrates are our fathers, whom the fifth commandment obligeth us to honour, and forbids us to revile. St. Paul applies this law to himself, and owns that he ought not to speak evil of the ruler of his people, no, not though he was then his most unrighteous persecutor, Act 23:5.

JFB: Exo 22:28 - gods

A word which is several times in this chapter rendered "judges" or magistrates.

JFB: Exo 22:28 - the ruler of thy people

And the chief magistrate who was also the high priest, at least in the time of Paul (Act 23:1-5).

Clarke: Exo 22:28 - Thou shalt not revile the gods

Thou shalt not revile the gods - Most commentators believe that the word gods here means magistrates. The original is אלהים Elohim , and should be understood of the true God only: Thou shalt not blaspheme or make light of [ תקלל tekallel ] God, the fountain of justice and power, nor curse the ruler of thy people, who derives his authority from God. We shall ever find that he who despises a good civil government, and is disaffected to that under which he lives, is one who has little fear of God before his eyes. The spirit of disaffection and sedition is ever opposed to the religion of the Bible. When those who have been pious get under the spirit of misrule, they infallibly get shorn of their spiritual strength, and become like salt that has lost its savor. He who can indulge himself in speaking evil of the civil ruler, will soon learn to blaspheme God. The highest authority says, Fear God: honor the king.

Calvin: Exo 22:28 - Thou shalt not revile the gods

Exo 22:28.Thou shalt not revile the gods. These four passages confirm what I have said, that in the: Fifth Commandment are comprised, by synecdoche all superiors in authority.: For it was not the design of God to add to the Two Tables, as if something better and more perfect had afterwards come into His mind; which it is sinful to suppose. He was therefore content with the rule once laid down, although He afterwards spoke in a more explanatory manner. But the precepts here given would be unconnected with the Law, if they were not an adjunct, and therefore a part, of the Fifth Commandment.

First of all, He commands that we should think and speak reverently of judges, and others, who exercise the office of magistrate: nor is it to be questioned, that, in the ordinary idiom of the Hebrew language, He repeats the same thing twice over; and consequently that the same persons are called “gods,” and “rulers of the people.” The name of God is, figuratively indeed, but most reasonably, applied to magistrates, upon whom, as the ministers of His authority, He has inscribed a mark of His glory. For, as we have seen that honor is due to fathers, because God has associated them with Himself in the possession of the name, so also here His own dignity is claimed for judges, in order that the people may reverence them, because they are God’s representatives, as His lieutenants, and vicars. And so Christ, the surest expositor, explains it, when He quotes the passage from Psa 82:6, “I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High,” (Joh 10:34,) viz., “that they are called gods, unto whom the word of God came,” which is to be understood not of the general instruction addressed to all God’s children, but of the special command to rule.

It is a signal exaltation of magistrates, that God should not only count them in the place of parents, but present them to us dignified by His own name; whence also it clearly appears that they are not to be obeyed only from fear of punishment, “but also for conscience sake,” (Rom 13:5,) and to be reverently honored, lest God should be despised in them. If any should object, that it would be wrong to praise the vices of those whom we perceive to abuse their power; the answer is easy, that although judges are to be borne with even if they be not the best, ¹³ still that the honor with which they are invested, is not a covering for vice. Nor does God command us to applaud their faults, but that the people should rather deplore them in silent sorrow, than raise disturbances in a licentious and seditious spirit, and so subvert political government.

TSK: Exo 22:28 - the gods // nor curse

the gods : or, judges, Exo 22:8, Exo 22:9; Psa 32:6, Psa 82:1-7, Psa 138:1; Joh 10:34, Joh 10:35

nor curse : Exo 21:17; 1Sa 24:6, 1Sa 24:10, 1Sa 26:9; Ecc 10:20; Act 23:3, Act 23:5; Rom 13:2-7; Tit 3:1, Tit 3:2; 1Pe 2:17; 2Pe 2:10; Jud 1:8

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Poole: Exo 22:28 - Gods // The ruler of thy people

Gods not gods falsely so called, as some would have it, as appears by 1Ki 18:27 Jer 10:11 ; but magistrates and governors, whether civil or ecclesiastical, as it is evident both from Act 23:3-5 and from the following words, which explain the former, according to the common use of Scripture, and from the title of gods commonly given to such, as Exo 7:1 Psa 82:6 Joh 10:34,35.

The ruler of thy people Compare /APC Sir 10:20 , Jud 1:8 .

Haydock: Exo 22:28 - Gods

Gods. Judges, priests, &c. Josephus and Philo say, we must not speak ill of strange gods, lest the Gentiles should take occasion to blaspheme the true God, and that we may be farther removed from the danger of taking the name of God in vain, and losing that respect which we owe to it.

Gill: Exo 22:28 - Thou shalt not revile the gods // nor curse the ruler of thy people

Thou shalt not revile the gods,.... Meaning not the idols of the Gentiles, which they reckon gods, and worship as such; which is the sense of Philo, and some others, particularly Josephus ⁱ, who, to curry favour with the Roman emperors given to idolatry, has from hence inserted the following among the laws given to Moses;"let no man blaspheme the gods, which other cities think are such, nor rob strange sacred places, nor receive a gift dedicated to any deity;''but this cannot be the sense of the text, being contrary to Deu 12:2 nor can it be thought that care should be taken, lest the honour of the Heathen deities should be detracted from; but civil magistrates, the judges of the land, and the like, are meant, who are powers ordained of God, are in his stead, and represent him, and therefore respect should be shown them; nor should they be treated with any degree of slight and contempt, which may discourage and intimidate them, and deter them from the execution of their office: the Targum of Jonathan interprets them of judges very rightly, agreeably to Psa 82:1 and so Aben Ezra says,"they are the judges and the priests, the sons of Levi, with whom the law is:"

nor curse the ruler of thy people whether civil or ecclesiastic; the last mentioned Jewish writer intend of the king, who is the supreme ruler in things civil, and ought to be honoured and loved, served and obeyed, and not hated and cursed, no, not secretly, not in the bedchamber, nor in the thought of the heart, since not only the thing is criminal but dangerous; it is much if it is not discovered, and then ruin follows upon it, Ecc 10:20. The Apostle Paul applies it to the high priest among the Jews, who was the ruler in sacred things, Act 23:5 and may be applicable to the prince of the sanhedrim, or chief in the grand court of judicature; and even to all dignified persons, who ought not to be spoken ill of, and to be abused in the execution of their office, and especially when they perform well.