“Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment:”
Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd. The prohibition on crowd-following in matters of justice is one of the most countercultural provisions in the Torah. Public opinion, social pressure, and the desire for approval are named as threats to the integrity of justice. Romans 12:2 says do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The renewed mind that can resist the crowd's pressure in Romans 12 is the same mind that can give honest testimony against the crowd's verdict in Exodus 23. The pressure to conform to collective wrongdoing is recognized as a specific moral hazard — and resisting it is a specific covenant obligation.
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