The Literal Commandment
You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Exodus 22:21)
This commandment forbids us from wronging or oppressing the stranger—the ger—with words or deeds. The Hebrew lo toneh ("do not wrong") includes verbal harm: insulting, mocking, shaming, or using harsh speech that wounds. It is not merely physical oppression but the cruelty of the tongue that can crush a vulnerable soul.
Why?
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (Exodus 20:2)
Because we know the pain of being outsiders; we were once the despised strangers in Egypt. G-d commands empathy born from memory: treat the foreigner as you wished to be treated when you were helpless and far from home.
Messiah Says
Messiah affirms this commandment by expanding the call to love and mercy toward all, especially the vulnerable and the outsider. He implicitly upholds it through His teachings on how we treat the "least of these," who often include the stranger among us:
Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me. (Matthew 25:40)
And when questioned about the greatest commandments, Yeshua ties love for neighbor directly to the heart of Torah:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37-39)
By commanding love for neighbor—and demonstrating it toward Samaritans, Gentiles, tax collectors, and the marginalized—Yeshua shows that wronging or insulting the stranger violates the very love G-d requires. Who is our neighbor? Everyone, especially the one who seems "other."
Pictures of Messiah
Why are we forbidden to wrong the stranger? Because Messiah Himself became the ultimate Stranger for us. He left the glory of heaven, became a sojourner in a fallen world, and experienced rejection, mockery, and oppression as the "outsider" from Nazareth. The religious elite insulted Him, called Him a Samaritan (John 8:48), a demon-possessed blasphemer, and worse. Yet He responded with mercy, never reviling in return.
He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. (Isaiah 53:3)
Messiah knows the pain of the stranger because He became one. We are to be like Him—extending grace to the foreigner, the convert, the newcomer—because in them we see the face of our suffering Savior.
How Messiah Fulfilled
Messiah perfectly fulfilled this commandment by never wronging or oppressing anyone with His words. Even when reviled, He did not revile in return; when suffering, He uttered no threats. Instead, He welcomed the stranger: the Syrophoenician woman (Mark 7:24-30), the Roman centurion (Matthew 8:5-13), the Samaritan woman (John 4), and countless others who were "outsiders" to Israel. He healed Gentiles, taught them, and included them in the Kingdom.
Through His life and death, Yeshua tore down the dividing wall of hostility (though Paul expands on this, Yeshua Himself demonstrated it). He showed that the stranger is not to be oppressed but embraced, because in Messiah all are made one family. His fulfillment invites us to live this out today: no insults, no harsh words, only love that remembers our own sojourning past.
Traditional Observance
In Jewish tradition, this commandment (often linked to the ger tzedek, the righteous convert) is taken seriously: one must not remind a convert of their former pagan ways, mock their accent, or cause them pain with words. The Talmud expands it to forbid any verbal oppression that could drive a newcomer away from Torah. Observance means careful speech—guarding the tongue so that no stranger feels belittled or unwelcome in the community of faith.
Can we perform this commandment today? Yes. In our congregations, workplaces, and online interactions, we guard against sarcasm, stereotypes, or dismissive comments toward those from different backgrounds. Empathy flows from remembering: we, too, were once strangers to the covenant.
Other Notes
This commandment appears multiple times in Torah (Exodus 22:21, 23:9; Leviticus 19:33-34; Deuteronomy 10:19), showing how deeply G-d cares for the vulnerable. Related is the positive command to love the stranger as ourselves (Leviticus 19:34). In Messiah, these converge: we love because He first loved us—strangers redeemed into sons and daughters.
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