Exodus 22:1-6

Exodus 22:1-Joshua : E. Theft and Damage.— Fourfold restitution was due ( Exodus 22:1), as in Roman law and Bedawin custom, for theft of a sheep (though fivefold for the doubly useful ox), reduced to twofold ( Exodus 22:4) if returned alive ( i.e. the stolen animal and another). A similar principle is found in Bab., Gr., Roman, and Indian law Probably Exodus 22:3 b links Exodus 22:4 directly to Exodus 22:1, providing that a pauper thief shall be sold to provide restitution money. Then, Budde suggests, Exodus 22:2-Leviticus : a will be a wrongly placed supplement, giving immunity if a robber be killed in the act, unless it be in daylight. The next case is clearer if, with slight changes of letters, we read, “ if a man cause a field . . . to be burnt, and let the burning spread, and it burn in another man’ s field,” etc. In that case, if his bonfire kindled a thorn hedge and burnt up good crops— an easy matter in the heat of summer— he must replace with the best of his own crops ( Exodus 22:5); but an accidental fire called for bare compensation only ( Exodus 22:6).