Exodus 22:1-4

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 

22:2 “If a thief is caught ⁵  breaking in ⁶  and is struck so that he dies, there will be no blood guilt for him. ⁷  22:3 If the sun has risen on him, then there is blood guilt for him. A thief ⁸  must surely make full restitution; if he has nothing, then he will be sold for his theft. 22:4 If the stolen item should in fact be found ⁹  alive in his possession, ¹⁰  whether it be an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he must pay back double. ¹¹ 

Leviticus 6:1-6

Trespass by Deception and False Oath

6:1 (5:20) ¹²  Then the Lord spoke to Moses: ¹³  6:2 “When a person sins and commits a trespass ¹⁴  against the Lord by deceiving his fellow citizen ¹⁵  in regard to something held in trust, or a pledge, or something stolen, or by extorting something from his fellow citizen, ¹⁶  6:3 or has found something lost and denies it and swears falsely ¹⁷  concerning any one of the things that someone might do to sin ¹⁸  – 6:4 when it happens that he sins and he is found guilty, ¹⁹  then he must return whatever he had stolen, or whatever he had extorted, or the thing that he had held in trust, ²⁰  or the lost thing that he had found, 6:5 or anything about which he swears falsely. ²¹  He must restore it in full ²²  and add one fifth to it; he must give it to its owner when he is found guilty. ²³  6:6 Then he must bring his guilt offering to the Lord, a flawless ram from the flock, convertible into silver shekels, ²⁴  for a guilt offering to the priest.

Leviticus 6:1

Trespass by Deception and False Oath

6:1 (5:20) ²⁵  Then the Lord spoke to Moses: ²⁶ 

Leviticus 12:3

12:3 On ²⁷  the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin ²⁸  must be circumcised.

Leviticus 12:2

12:2 “Tell the Israelites, ‘When a woman produces offspring ²⁹  and bears a male child, ³⁰  she will be unclean seven days, as she is unclean during the days of her menstruation. ³¹ 

Leviticus 12:6

12:6 “‘When ³²  the days of her purification are completed for a son or for a daughter, she must bring a one year old lamb ³³  for a burnt offering ³⁴  and a young pigeon or turtledove for a sin offering ³⁵  to the entrance of the Meeting Tent, to the priest.

Proverbs 6:31

6:31 Yet ³⁶  if he is caught ³⁷  he must repay ³⁸  seven times over,

he might even have to give ³⁹  all the wealth of his house.

[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.

[22:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “found” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

[22:2]  ⁶ tn The word בַּמַּחְתֶּרֶת (bammakhteret) means “digging through” the walls of a house (usually made of mud bricks). The verb is used only a few times and has the meaning of dig in (as into houses) or row hard (as in Jonah 1:13).

[22:2]  ⁷ tn The text has “there is not to him bloods.” When the word “blood” is put in the plural, it refers to bloodshed, or the price of blood that is shed, i.e., blood guiltiness.

[22:3]  ⁸ tn The words “a thief” have been added for clarification. S. R. Driver (Exodus, 224) thinks that these lines are out of order, since some of them deal with killing the thief and then others with the thief making restitution, but rearranging the clauses is not a necessary way to bring clarity to the paragraph. The idea here would be that any thief caught alive would pay restitution.

[22:4]  ⁹ tn The construction uses a Niphal infinitive absolute and a Niphal imperfect: if it should indeed be found. Gesenius says that in such conditional clauses the infinitive absolute has less emphasis, but instead emphasizes the condition on which some consequence depends (see GKC 342-43 §113.o).

[22:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in his hand.”

[22:4]  ¹¹ sn He must pay back one for what he took, and then one for the penalty – his loss as he was inflicting a loss on someone else.

[6:1]  ¹² sn Beginning with 6:1, the verse numbers through 6:30 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 6:1 ET = 5:20 HT, 6:2 ET = 5:21 HT, 6:8 ET = 6:1 HT, etc., through 6:30 ET = 6:23 HT. Beginning with 7:1 the verse numbers in the English text and Hebrew text are again the same.

[6:1]  ¹³ sn This paragraph is Lev 6:1-7 in the English Bible but Lev 5:20-26 in the Hebrew text. The quotation introduced by v. 1 extends from Lev 6:2 (5:21 HT) through 6:7 (5:26 HT), encompassing the third main section of guilt offering regulations. Compare the notes on Lev 1:1; 4:1; and 5:14 above.

[6:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “trespasses a trespass” (verb and direct object from the same Hebrew root מַעַל, ma’al). See the note on 5:15.

[6:2]  ¹⁵ tn Or “neighbor” (ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NASB “companion”; TEV “a fellow-Israelite.”

[6:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “has extorted his neighbor”; ASV “oppressed”; NRSV “defrauded.”

[6:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and swears on falsehood”; cf. CEV “deny something while under oath.”

[6:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “on one from all which the man shall do to sin in them.”

[6:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and it shall happen, when he sins and becomes guilty,” which is both resumptive of the previous (vv. 2-3) and the conclusion to the protasis (cf. “then” introducing the next clause as the apodosis). In this case, “becomes guilty” (cf. NASB, NIV) probably refers to his legal status as one who has been convicted of a crime in court; thus the translation “he is found guilty.” See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 1:559-61.

[6:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “that had been held in trust with him.”

[6:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “or from all which he swears on it to falsehood.”

[6:5]  ²² tn Heb “in its head.” This refers “the full amount” in terms of the “principal,” the original item or amount obtained illegally (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:338; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 84).

[6:5]  ²³ tn Heb “to whom it is to him he shall give it in the day of his being guilty.” The present translation is based on the view that he has been found guilty through the legal process (see the note on v. 4 above; cf., e.g., TEV and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 33-34). Others translate the latter part as “in the day he offers his guilt [reparation] offering” (e.g., NIV and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 73, 84), or “in the day he realizes his guilt” (e.g., NRSV and J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:319, 338).

[6:6]  ²⁴ tn The words “into silver shekels” are supplied here. See the full expression in Lev 5:15, and compare 5:18. Cf. NRSV “or its equivalent”; NLT “or the animal’s equivalent value in silver.”

[6:1]  ²⁵ sn Beginning with 6:1, the verse numbers through 6:30 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 6:1 ET = 5:20 HT, 6:2 ET = 5:21 HT, 6:8 ET = 6:1 HT, etc., through 6:30 ET = 6:23 HT. Beginning with 7:1 the verse numbers in the English text and Hebrew text are again the same.

[6:1]  ²⁶ sn This paragraph is Lev 6:1-7 in the English Bible but Lev 5:20-26 in the Hebrew text. The quotation introduced by v. 1 extends from Lev 6:2 (5:21 HT) through 6:7 (5:26 HT), encompassing the third main section of guilt offering regulations. Compare the notes on Lev 1:1; 4:1; and 5:14 above.

[12:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and in….”

[12:3]  ²⁸ tn This rendering, “the flesh of his foreskin,” is literal. Based on Lev 15:2-3, one could argue that the Hebrew word for “flesh” here (בָּשָׂר, basar) is euphemistic for the male genitals and therefore translate “the foreskin of his member” (see, e.g., J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:748). A number of English versions omit this reference to the foreskin and mention only circumcision, presumably for euphemistic reasons (cf. NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[12:2]  ²⁹ tn Heb “produces seed” (Hiphil of זָרַע, zara’; used only elsewhere in Gen 1:11-12 for plants “producing” their own “seed”), referring to the process of childbearing as a whole, from conception to the time of birth (H. D. Preuss, TDOT 4:144; cf. J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 164-65; and J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:742-43). Smr and LXX have Niphal “be impregnated” (see, e.g., Num 5:28); note KJV “If a woman have conceived seed” (cf. ASV, NAB, NRSV; also NIV, NLT “becomes pregnant”).

[12:2]  ³⁰ sn The regulations for the “male child” in vv. 2-4 contrast with those for the “female child” in v. 5 (see the note there).

[12:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “as the days of the menstrual flow [nom.] of her menstruating [q. inf.] she shall be unclean” (R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 1:925-26; the verb appears only in this verse in the OT). Cf. NASB “as in the days of her menstruation”; NLT “during her menstrual period”; NIV “during her monthly period.”

[12:6]  ³² tn Heb “And when” (so KJV, NASB). Many recent English versions leave the conjunction untranslated.

[12:6]  ³³ tn Heb “a lamb the son of his year”; KJV “a lamb of the first year” (NRSV “in its first year”); NAB “a yearling lamb.”

[12:6]  ³⁴ sn See the note on Lev 1:3 regarding the “burnt offering.”

[12:6]  ³⁵ sn See the note on Lev 4:3 regarding the term “sin offering.”

[6:31]  ³⁶ tn The term “yet” is supplied in the translation.

[6:31]  ³⁷ 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]  ³⁸ 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]  ³⁹ 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.”