Exodus 22:4

4 If caught red-handed with the stolen goods, and the ox or donkey or lamb is still alive, the thief pays double.

Exodus 22:4 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 22:4

If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive
Or, "in finding be found" F9, be plainly and evidently found upon him, before witnesses, as the Targum of Jonathan; so that there is no doubt of the theft; and it is a clear case that he had neither as yet killed nor sold the creature he had stolen, and to could be had again directly, and without any damage well as it would appear by this that he was not an old expert thief, and used to such practices, since he would soon have made away with this theft in some way or another:

whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep,
or any other creature; and even, as Jarchi thinks, anything else, as raiment, goods

he shall restore double;
two oxen for an ox, two asses for an ass, and two sheep for a sheep: and, as the same commentator observes, two living ones, and not dead ones, or the price of two living ones: so Solon made theft, by his law, punishable with death, but with a double restitution F11; and the reason why here only a double restitution and not fourfold is insisted on, as in ( Exodus 22:1 ) is, because there the theft is persisted in, here not; but either the thief being convicted in his own conscience of his evil, makes confession, or, however, the creatures are found with alive, and so more useful being restored, and, being had again sooner, the loss is not quite so great.


FOOTNOTES:

F9 (aumt aumh) "inveniendo inventum fuerit", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator.
F11 A. Gell, l. 11. c. 18.

Exodus 22:4 In-Context

2 If the thief is caught while breaking in and is hit hard and dies, there is no bloodguilt.
3 But if it happens after daybreak, there is bloodguilt.
4 If caught red-handed with the stolen goods, and the ox or donkey or lamb is still alive, the thief pays double.
5 "If someone grazes livestock in a field or vineyard but lets them loose so they graze in someone else's field, restitution must be made from the best of the owner's field or vineyard.
6 "If fire breaks out and spreads to the brush so that the sheaves of grain or the standing grain or even the whole field is burned up, whoever started the fire must pay for the damages.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.