Leviticus 22:14

22:14 “‘If a man eats a holy offering by mistake, ¹  he must add one fifth to it and give the holy offering to the priest. ² 

Exodus 22:1

Laws about Property

22:1 ³ (21:37) ⁴  “If a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he must pay back ⁵  five head of cattle for the ox, and four sheep for the one sheep. ⁶ 

Exodus 22:3-4

22:3 If the sun has risen on him, then there is blood guilt for him. A thief ⁷  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 ⁸  alive in his possession, ⁹  whether it be an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he must pay back double. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 69:4

69:4 Those who hate me without cause are more numerous than the hairs of my head.

Those who want to destroy me, my enemies for no reason, ¹¹  outnumber me. ¹² 

They make me repay what I did not steal! ¹³ 

Luke 19:8

19:8 But Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, half of my possessions I now give ¹⁴  to the poor, and if ¹⁵  I have cheated anyone of anything, I am paying back four times as much!”

Acts 26:20

26:20 but I declared to those in Damascus first, and then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, ¹⁶  and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, ¹⁷  performing deeds consistent with ¹⁸  repentance.

[22:14]  ¹ tn Heb “And a man, if he eats a holy thing in error” (see the Lev 4:2 not on “straying,” which is the term rendered “by mistake” here).

[22:14]  ² sn When a person trespassed in regard to something sacred to the Lord, reparation was to be made for the trespass, involving restitution of that which was violated plus one fifth of its value as a fine. It is possible that the restoration of the offering and the additional one fifth of its value were made as a monetary payment (see, e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 150). See the regulations for the “guilt offering” in Lev 5:16; 6:5 [5:24 HT] and the notes there.

[22:1]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn The imperfect tense here has the nuance of obligatory imperfect – he must pay back.

[22:1]  ⁶ 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.

[22:3]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “in his hand.”

[22:4]  ¹⁰ 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.

[69:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “[with] a lie.” The Hebrew noun שֶׁקֶר (sheqer, “lie”) is used here as an adverb, “falsely, wrongfully” (see Pss 35:19; 38:19).

[69:4]  ¹² tn The Hebrew verb עָצַם (’atsam) can sometimes mean “are strong,” but here it probably focuses on numerical superiority; note the parallel verb רָבַב (ravav, “be many”).

[69:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “that which I did not steal, then I restore.” Apparently אָז (’az, “then”) is used here to emphasize the verb that follows.

[19:8]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn This is a first class condition in the Greek text. It virtually confesses fraud.

[26:20]  ¹⁶ tn BDAG 1093-94 s.v. χώρα 2.b states, “of the provincial name (1 Macc 8:3) ἡ χώρα τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας Ac 26:20.”

[26:20]  ¹⁷ sn That they should repent and turn to God. This is the shortest summary of Paul’s message that he preached.

[26:20]  ¹⁸ tn BDAG 93 s.v. ἄξιος 1.b, “καρποὶ ἄ. τῆς μετανοίας fruits in keeping with your repentance…Lk 3:8; Mt 3:8. For this ἄ. τῆς μετανοίας ἔργα Ac 26:20.” Note how Paul preached the gospel offer and the issue of response together, side by side.