Exodus 23:4–5

23:4 “If you encounter11 your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, you must by all means return12 it to him. 23:5 If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen under its load, you must not ignore him,13 but be sure to help14 him with it.15

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11	tn Heb “meet” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).
12	tn The construction uses the imperfect tense (taken here as an obligatory imperfect) and the infinitive absolute for emphasis.
13	tn The line reads “you will cease to forsake him”—refrain from leaving your enemy without help.
14	tn The law is emphatic here as well, using the infinitive absolute and the imperfect of instruction (or possibly obligation). There is also a wordplay here: two words עָזַב (’azav) are used, one meaning “forsake” and the other possibly meaning “arrange” based on Arabic and Ugaritic evidence (see U. Cassuto, Exodus, 297–98).
15	sn See H. B. Huffmon, “Exodus 23:4–5: A Comparative Study,” A Light Unto My Path, 271–78.