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Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Exodus 22:7-15

Next we have four cases involving property held in custody. In the Hammurabi Code the penalty for losing or allowing a thief to steal what someone else had committed to one’s trust was death [Note: Ibid., section 9.] as was falsely accusing someone of this crime. [Note: Ibid., section 11.] The Torah required only twofold payment in both situations (Exodus 22:9).Second, if what someone entrusted to his neighbor for safekeeping perished by accident (Exodus 22:10-13) the neighbor was not... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 22:1-31

The Book of the Covenant (continued)1. Four sheep] The larger compensation required in the case of the ox is probably due to the fact that it is an animal used for labour, and of proportionately higher value, therefore, than a sheep: cp. 2 Samuel 12:6. 2. Breaking up] RV ’breaking in.’ 3. If the sun be risen upon him] i.e. if the housebreaking be committed in daylight. The nocturnal burglar is more dangerous and cannot be so easily detected. In a case of daylight robbery it is less necessary to... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Exodus 22:14-15

(14, 15) Lending is a species of deposit; but for the benefit, not of the depositor, but of the man with whom the deposit is made. The obligation of the latter to keep intact and to return is therefore even more stringent than in the preceding case. Consequently, if the thing lent were lost or injured, however the loss was brought about, the borrower was justly called upon to make it good. The only exception was, when the lender was still in charge of what he lent, present with it, and able to... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Exodus 22:15

(15) If it be a hired thing.—Letting out for hire is akin to lending; but still quite a different transaction. Damage to a thing hired was not to be made good by the hirer, since the risk of it might be considered to have formed part of the calculation upon which the amount of the hire was fixed. read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - Exodus 22:1-15

6PART III.--RIGHTS OF PROPERTY.Exodus 21:33 - Exodus 22:15.The vital and quickening principle in this section is the stress it lays upon man’s responsibility for negligence, and the indirect consequences of his deed. All sin is selfish, and all selfishness ignores the right of others. Am I my brother’s keeper? Let him guard his own property or pay the forfeit. But this sentiment would quickly prove a disintegrating force in the community, able to overthrow a state. It is the ignoble negative of... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - Exodus 22:1-31

6THE LESSER LAW.Exodus 20:18 - Exodus 23:33.With the close of the Decalogue and its universal obligations, we approach a brief code of laws, purely Hebrew, but of the deepest moral interest, confessed by hostile criticism to bear every mark of a remote antiquity, and distinctly severed from what precedes and follows by a marked difference in the circumstances.This is evidently the book of the Covenant to which the nation gave its formal assent (Exodus 24:7), and is therefore the germ and the... read more

Arno Clemens Gaebelein

Arno Gaebelein's Annotated Bible - Exodus 22:1-31

CHAPTER 22 Further judgments 1. Concerning theft (Exodus 22:1-5 ) 2. Concerning neglect in case of fire (Exodus 22:6 ) 3. Concerning dishonesty (Exodus 22:7-15 ) 4. Concerning immoralities and forbidden things (Exodus 22:16-20 ) 5. Concerning oppression (Exodus 22:21-28 ) 6. Concerning offerings to God (Exodus 22:29-31 ) These laws need no further comment; they are good and just. The wisdom of them is the wisdom from above. We call attention to Exodus 22:18 : “Thou shalt not suffer... read more

John Calvin

Geneva Study Bible - Exodus 22:15

22:15 [But] if the owner thereof [be] with it, he shall not make [it] good: if it [be] an hired [thing], it {g} came for his hire.(g) He that hired it shall be free by paying the hire. read more

L.M. Grant

L. M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 22:1-31

LAWS AS REGARDS PROPERTY (vs.1-15) While one rightly was control over his own property, yet he is also responsible as to how he uses it. If one were to dig a pit, even on his own property, and leave it uncovered, he would he responsible for an animal falling into it. If the animal died, the owner of the pit must pay the value of the animal, and could therefore keep the dead beast (v.34). In the case of one man's ox killing one belonging to another person, then half the value of the live ox... read more

James Gray

James Gray's Concise Bible Commentary - Exodus 22:1-31

THE CIVIL CODE The ten commandments constitute the moral law, a perfect rule of duty for all men and everywhere. But the “judgments” (Exodus 21:1 ) that follow are an application of those commandments to Israel in the peculiar circumstances of their history at that time and when they should inhabit Canaan. The ten commandments, let us say, represent the constitution of the United States, and the judgments the legislative enactments based thereon by Congress. The three chapters now entered... read more

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