This law has the categorical or apodictic form of the Ten Commandments, with two strong prohibitives and then a reason. You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him is literally “An alien you [singular] shall not mistreat and you shall not oppress him.” The two verbs mean about the same thing, but the first one implies violating a person’s rights, and the second one implies actual affliction. For stranger see the comment at 2.22. New Revised Standard Version has changed this to “resident alien.”

For you were strangers in the land of Egypt changes the singular you to plural, referring to all the Israelites. Some translations give this more emphasis, “you yourselves” (New Jerusalem Bible, Revised English Bible, Translator’s Old Testament). Good News Translation restructures: “Remember that you were foreigners in Egypt.”

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .