Exodus 22: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

God continues giving Israel case laws about property: penalties for stealing livestock, killing a thief who breaks in, grazing damage, fires that spread, goods or animals left with a neighbor for safekeeping, borrowed and rented animals, and a man who seduces a woman who is not engaged. The chapter then turns to commands about witches, sex with animals, and sacrifice to other gods, and to how Israel must treat foreigners, widows, orphans, and poor people who borrow money. It closes with rules about a cloak taken as security, speaking against God and rulers, not delaying the offering from the fullness of harvest and press, giving the firstborn of sons and animals, and not eating meat from an animal torn in the field.

Claim by Claim

1. 22:1
   • If a man steals an ox or a member of the flock, and slaughters it or sells it, he must repay five head of cattle for the ox.
   • For a stolen sheep or goat that was slaughtered or sold, he must repay four of the flock.
2. 22:2
   • If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there is no bloodguilt for killing him.
3. 22:3
   • If the sun has risen on the thief when he is struck down, there is bloodguilt for killing him.
   • A thief must make full restitution.
   • If the thief has nothing, he is to be sold for his theft.
4. 22:4
   • If the stolen animal is found alive in the thief's possession, whether ox or donkey or sheep, he must repay double.
5. 22:5
   • If a man lets his livestock graze a field or vineyard bare and lets the animal loose so that it grazes in another man's field, he must make restitution.
   • The restitution is made from the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard.
6. 22:6
   • If a fire breaks out and catches in thorns so that stacked grain, or standing grain, or the field is consumed, the one who started the fire must make full restitution.
7. 22:7
   • If a man gives his neighbor money or goods for safekeeping and they are stolen from the man's house, the thief, if found, must repay double.
8. 22:8
   • If the thief is not found, the owner of the house must be brought before God, or before the judges; the term is ambiguous.
   • The purpose is to determine whether he laid his hand on his neighbor's property.
9. 22:9
   • In every case of wrongful possession (of an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any lost thing) that someone claims is his, the case of both parties must come before God, or before the judges; the term is ambiguous.
   • The one whom God, or the judges, condemns must repay double to his neighbor.
10. 22:10
    • A case is described in which a man gives his neighbor a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any animal to keep, and it dies, or is injured, or is driven away, with no one seeing it.
11. 22:11
    • In that case an oath before the LORD shall be made between the two of them.
    • The oath is that he has not laid his hand on his neighbor's property.
    • The owner must accept the oath.
    • The keeper is not to make restitution.
12. 22:12
    • If the animal was stolen from the keeper, he must make restitution to its owner.
13. 22:13
    • If the animal was torn by beasts, the keeper is to bring it as evidence.
    • He is not to make restitution for what was torn.
14. 22:14
    • If a man borrows an animal from his neighbor and it is injured or dies while its owner is not with it, he must make full restitution.
15. 22:15
    • If the owner was with it, the borrower does not make restitution.
    • If the animal was hired, the loss is covered by its hire.
16. 22:16
    • If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he must pay the bride-price for her to be his wife.
17. 22:17
    • If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, the man must still weigh out money equal to the bride-price of virgins.
18. 22:18
    • A sorceress must not be allowed to live.
19. 22:19
    • Anyone who lies with an animal must be put to death.
20. 22:20
    • Anyone who sacrifices to any god other than the LORD alone is to be devoted to destruction.
21. 22:21
    • You must not wrong a foreigner living among you.
    • You must not oppress him.
    • The reason given is that you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
22. 22:22
    • You must not afflict any widow or fatherless child.
23. 22:23
    • If you afflict them at all and they cry out to God, God will surely hear their cry.
24. 22:24
    • God's anger will burn against you.
    • God will kill you with the sword.
    • Your wives will become widows.
    • Your children will become fatherless.
25. 22:25
    • If you lend money to one of God's people who is poor among you, you must not act toward him as a creditor.
    • You must not charge him interest.
26. 22:26
    • If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, you must return it to him by sunset.
27. 22:27
    • The cloak is his only covering.
    • It is the garment for his body.
    • The question is asked: in what else would he sleep?
    • When he cries out to God, God will hear.
    • God says he is gracious.
28. 22:28
    • You must not revile God, or the judges, or gods; the term is ambiguous.
    • You must not curse a ruler of your people.
29. 22:29
    • You must not delay in offering from the fullness of your harvest and from your press.
    • You are to give God the firstborn of your sons.
30. 22:30
    • You are to do the same with your cattle and your sheep.
    • The newborn animal is to stay with its mother seven days.
    • On the eighth day you are to give it to God.
31. 22:31
    • You are to be holy men belonging to God.
    • You must not eat meat torn by beasts in the field.
    • You are to throw such meat to the dogs.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

22:1

Multiple restitution (paying back several times what was taken) was the standard penalty for livestock theft in the ancient Near East. Oxen carried the heavier fine because a plow ox was a working animal that took years to train, and its loss cost the owner a whole season's labor, not just the animal. (In Hebrew Bibles this sentence is counted as the last verse of chapter 21, so verse numbers in this chapter run one apart between Hebrew and English editions.)

22:2

"There shall no blood be shed for him" is a legal formula, not a description: it means no bloodguilt attaches to the killer. Under Israelite custom an unlawful killing left the dead man's family entitled to pursue the killer; declaring that there is no bloodguilt cancels that claim.

22:3

"If the sun be risen upon him" means if the break-in happens in daylight. The distinction is that in the dark the householder cannot see who the intruder is or whether he is armed, while in daylight he can, so killing him is no longer treated as self-defense.

22:4

The penalty here is lower than the fivefold and fourfold payments of verse 1 because the animal is still alive and can be handed straight back; the thief has not destroyed or disposed of it.

22:5

Fields and vineyards in this period were usually unfenced strips lying side by side, so an animal let loose to graze could easily strip a neighbor's crop. "Of the best of his own field" means the compensation is measured by the owner's best produce, not by whatever poor crop the offender chooses to hand over.

22:6

Thorn hedges were grown along the edges of fields as boundaries and as barriers against animals; dry thorn catches fire fast and carries it from one plot to the next. KJV "corn" means grain of any kind, wheat or barley, not maize.

22:7

There were no banks. People left money and valuables with a trusted neighbor for safekeeping, especially when traveling, and these verses set out who bears the loss when the deposit goes missing.

22:8

"The judges" translates the Hebrew word *elohim*, which can mean God, gods, or human authorities acting as judges; ancient and modern translators have gone both ways, and the same ambiguity appears again in verse 28. Trials of this kind were held at the town gate or a local sanctuary. "Put his hand unto" is an idiom for helping himself to another's property.

22:9

The double payment falls on whichever side the judges find to be lying (the man who wrongly holds the goods, or the man who wrongly claimed them), so a false accusation carries the same cost as the theft.

22:11

Where there are no witnesses, the case is settled by a formal oath sworn in the LORD's name. The oath is legally decisive: the owner must accept it and drop his claim, and the risk of swearing falsely is left between the swearer and God rather than pursued in court.

22:13

A shepherd proved that a predator had killed an animal by producing the carcass or what was left of it, a leg, a piece of ear. The same practice appears in Genesis 31:39 and Amos 3:12.

22:15

"It came for his hire" means the rental price already carries the risk: the fee the hirer paid is treated as covering the possibility that the animal would be injured or die while working.

22:16

The bride price (Hebrew *mohar*) was a payment made by the groom or his family to the bride's father when a marriage was agreed. A woman who was "betrothed" was already legally pledged, which is why this law concerns one who is not, an engaged woman's case was treated far more seriously.

22:17

The father keeps the right to refuse the marriage, but the man still pays. Deuteronomy 22:29 fixes the standard amount at fifty shekels of silver. The money went to the father, who would otherwise have received a bride price from a future husband.

22:18

The Hebrew word is feminine, a woman practicing sorcery: spells, potions, curses and divination for hire. "Witch" in 1611 English carried that same sense of someone working harmful magic, not the later folklore figure.

22:20

"Utterly destroyed" translates a technical term (Hebrew *herem*) meaning placed under a ban, handed over irrevocably to God and so removed from ordinary human use, which in the case of a person meant death.

22:21

A "stranger" here is a resident foreigner: someone living long-term among Israelites but outside the family and clan networks that owned land and enforced a person's rights. Such a person had no relatives to take up his cause, which is what made him easy to exploit.

22:22

Widows and fatherless children are named together throughout the Hebrew Bible as the standard examples of people with no male relative to provide for them or speak for them in a legal dispute, which in this society meant no income and no protection.

22:24

"My wrath shall wax hot" means my anger will grow hot. The punishment matches the crime exactly: men who create widows and orphans will leave their own wives as widows and their own children fatherless.

22:25

"Usury" in 1611 English meant charging interest of any kind, not merely charging too much. Lending to a poor Israelite was treated as relief for someone in distress rather than as a business transaction, so no profit could be taken from it.

22:26

Taking a garment "to pledge" means holding it as security until the loan is repaid. The pledge here is the poor man's outer cloak, a large rectangle of cloth worn by day and used as a blanket at night, so it has to be handed back each evening, which makes it a token of the debt rather than real collateral.

22:27

"Gracious" here means compassionate, inclined to show kindness to someone in need.

22:28

The word translated "the gods" is the same ambiguous Hebrew word as in verse 8, *elohim*: it can mean God, or gods, or the human judges and leaders who ruled in God's name. The pairing with "the ruler of thy people" in the second half has led translators to read it either way.

22:29

"Thy ripe fruits, and thy liquors" renders two Hebrew words meaning roughly your fullness and your outflow, the grain heaped up from the harvest and the juice running from the winepress and olive press. On the firstborn sons: elsewhere in Exodus (13:13, 34:20) the firstborn son is bought back by a payment rather than handed over.

22:30

"Give it me" means offer it in sacrifice. The seven-day wait allowed the newborn to be suckled by its mother; an animal that died in its first days was in any case not viable, and the same eight-day rule appears in Leviticus 22:27.

22:31

An animal killed by a predator has not been slaughtered and drained of blood, and its flesh may already be tainted, so it is excluded from food. Dogs in this world were not pets but half-wild scavengers around the edges of a settlement; throwing meat to them is the ordinary way of disposing of a carcass.