Exodus 23:2

Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil— As the former verse, no less than the latter part of this and the third, refers to testimony and judgment, one would imagine, that this also must have a more limited sense than the words bear in our version. Houbigant renders the whole verse thus: thou shalt not be a follower of great men to do evil: neither shalt thou so answer in a cause, as to decline to sin, after great men; (Exodus 23:3.) but neither shalt thou honour or countenance a poor man in his cause. רבים rabim, which we render multitude and many, undoubtedly signifies, as Houbigant renders it, great ones, or great men, and is clearly opposed to דל dal, a poor man, in the third verse. So that, upon this version, the meaning of the law is this: that no person, in legal suits, and especially as witnesses in such suits, were to be influenced, either by the favour of the great, or by false compassion for the poor. In the 6th and following verses, laws to the same purpose are laid down for judges, as in these for witnesses and private persons.