Biblion Bible Commentary
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Restitution
Exodus 22:1-15
1 “If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall pay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. · WEB
Theft is answered by repayment to the victim rather than by punishment of the thief, and the sums are set to make it hurt.
If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall pay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep Exodus 22:1.
The governing principle of this whole paragraph is that the remedy for theft is repayment to the person robbed. There is no imprisonment in the law of Israel, and no fine paid to the state. The wronged party is made more than whole, and the thief pays the difference out of his own labor.
The multiples are graded by what the theft destroyed. An ox is a working animal, so its loss costs its owner a year of plowing as well as the beast: fivefold. A sheep, threefold less useful, four. And if the animal is recovered alive, he shall pay double Exodus 22:4 — the loss was temporary, so the penalty falls.
If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft Exodus 22:3. The thief who cannot pay works, which is where the six-year servitude of the previous chapter comes from. A modern reader sees slavery; the alternative on offer in the ancient world was a debtor's death.
If the thief is found breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt of bloodshed for him. If the sun has risen on him, he is guilty of bloodshed Exodus 22:2–3.
A distinction drawn by the hour. At night a householder cannot see who is in his house or what they intend, and killing an intruder is not held against him. In daylight it is, because he can see, and a thief's life is worth more than the property he is carrying. The line between self-defense and revenge is drawn at the point where the defender can tell what he is facing.
If a man causes a field or vineyard to be eaten by letting his animal loose... he shall make restitution from the best of his own field Exodus 22:5.
The best of his own. Restitution is not settled by handing over inferior goods of the right quantity, which is the obvious way to comply with the letter of such a law. The same rule covers a fire that gets away from the man who lit it Exodus 22:6: carelessness with a neighbor's harvest is charged at full value, and no distinction is made between the animal that wandered and the flame that spread.
The remaining cases concern property left in someone else's keeping, and they turn on a problem no evidence can settle. Goods entrusted and then missing, with no witness Exodus 22:8–11. Where there is nothing to examine, the law brings both parties before God and requires an oath, and the oath is accepted. A legal system has to decide what to do when proof is impossible, and this one is willing to let a man's word before God close a case — which places a considerable weight on the third commandment.
One small clause makes the fairness visible. If a borrowed animal dies while its owner was present, nothing is owed Exodus 22:15. The owner saw what happened, and a man is not liable for what someone else watched him not cause.
settled What this mark means