Exodus 22:1

Laws about Property

22:1 ¹ (21:37) ²  “If a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he must pay back ³  five head of cattle for the ox, and four sheep for the one sheep. ⁴ 

Proverbs 6:31

6:31 Yet ⁵  if he is caught ⁶  he must repay ⁷  seven times over,

he might even have to give ⁸  all the wealth of his house.

Luke 19:8

19:8 But Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, half of my possessions I now give ⁹  to the poor, and if ¹⁰  I have cheated anyone of anything, I am paying back four times as much!”

[22:1]  ¹ sn The next section of laws concerns property rights. These laws protected property from thieves and oppressors, but also set limits to retribution. The message could be: God’s laws demand that the guilty make restitution for their crimes against property and that the innocent be exonerated.

[22:1]  ² sn Beginning with 22:1, the verse numbers through 22:31 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 22:1 ET = 21:37 HT, 22:2 ET = 22:1 HT, etc., through 22:31 ET = 22:30 HT. Thus in the English Bible ch. 22 has 31 verses, while in the Hebrew Bible it has 30 verses, with the one extra verse attached to ch. 21 in the Hebrew Bible.

[22:1]  ³ tn The imperfect tense here has the nuance of obligatory imperfect – he must pay back.

[22:1]  ⁴ tn בָּקַר (baqar) and צֹאן (tso’n) are the categories to which the ox and the sheep belonged, so that the criminal had some latitude in paying back animals.

[6:31]  ⁵ tn The term “yet” is supplied in the translation.

[6:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “is found out.” The perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive is equivalent to the imperfect nuances. Here it introduces either a conditional or a temporal clause before the imperfect.

[6:31]  ⁷ tn The imperfect tense has an obligatory nuance. The verb in the Piel means “to repay; to make restitution; to recompense”; cf. NCV, TEV, CEV “must pay back.”

[6:31]  ⁸ tn This final clause in the section is somewhat cryptic. The guilty thief must pay back sevenfold what he stole, even if it means he must use the substance of his whole house. The verb functions as an imperfect of possibility: “he might even give.”

[19:8]  ⁹ sn Zacchaeus was a penitent man who resolved on the spot to act differently in the face of Jesus’ acceptance of him. In resolving to give half his possessions to the poor, Zacchaeus was not defending himself against the crowd’s charges and claiming to be righteous. Rather as a result of this meeting with Jesus, he was a changed individual. So Jesus could speak of salvation coming that day (v. 9) and of the lost being saved (v. 10).

[19:8]  ¹⁰ tn This is a first class condition in the Greek text. It virtually confesses fraud.