Exodus 22:4 - Exposition

If the theft be certainly found in his hand . If he be caught in flagrante delicto, with the thing stolen in his possession, "whether it be ox, or ass, or small cattle," he shall restore double. The law of theft in the Mosaic legislation is altogether of a mild character, as compared with the Roman, or even with the English law, until the present century. Double restitution was a sort of "retaliation"—it involved a man losing the exact amount which he had expected to gain