Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 22:4
If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep; he shall restore double.
4. If the stolen animal be not killed, or sold ( v. 1), but still alive his possession, he only repays double, i.e. the stolen animal itself, and a second as a fine. The same principle of double restitution recurs vv. 7, 9; it was adopted also ‘in the laws of Manu (viii. 329), at least in the case of things of small value; by Solon, for theft; in Athenian law, in cases of damage ( ) done intentionally (Dem. adv. Mid. 43, p. 528: in unintentional simple restitution was prescribed); by Plato, Legg. ix., p. 857 a, for theft; in both the XII. Tables (Gell. XI. 18. 15) and the later Roman law, for theft, when the thief was not caught in the act’ (Kn.); and by Hmmurabi in various cases of fraudulent claim ( 101, 120, 124, 160, 161); cf. DB. v. 596 b .
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 4. He shall restore double.] In no case of theft was the life of the offender taken away; the utmost that the law says on this point is, that, if when found breaking into a house, he should be smitten so as to die, no blood should be shed for him; Ex 22:2. If he had stolen and sold the property, then he was to restore four or fivefold, Ex 22:1; but if the animal was found alive in his possession, he was to restore double.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Alive; not killed, nor sold, as Exo 22:1.
Double; not more,
1. Because in that case it was presumed, either that he intended to restore it, or at least that he was but raw and unexercised in the trade of stealing, and so should be more gently punished.
2. Because the right owner recovered his goods with less charge and trouble. Or,
3. Because it was but a single crime, whereas the other, Exo 22:1, was an aggravated and complicated crime, where one sin and injury was added to another.
Object. It is said, he shall restore sevenfold, Pro 6:31.
Answ. 1.
Sevenfold is put for abundantly, as that word is oft used, as Gen 4:24; Psa 12:6; 79:12; and a learned man observes, it is never used for that definite number.
Answ. 2. This sevenfold, or seven times, may relate not to the proportion of his restitution, but to the number of his thefts, or rather of his detections; and the sense is this, Though he be found guilty of theft seven times, all his punishment is, that he shall restore as the law prescribes. Whereas adultery, of which he there speaks in the following verses, is a crime of that nature, that if a man be once found guilty of it, restitution cannot be made, nor will it serve his turn, but he falls into all the mischiefs there reckoned up.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive,…. Or, “in finding be found” i, be plainly and evidently found upon him, before witnesses, as the Targum of Jonathan; so that there is no doubt of the theft; and it is a clear case that he had neither as yet killed nor sold the creature he had stolen, and to could be had again directly, and without any damage well as it would appear by this that he was not an old expert thief, and used to such practices, since he would soon have made away with this theft in some way or another:
whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep, or any other creature; and even, as Jarchi thinks, anything else, as raiment, goods, c.
he shall restore double two oxen for an ox, two asses for an ass, and two sheep for a sheep: and, as the same commentator observes, two living ones, and not dead ones, or the price of two living ones: so Solon made theft, by his law, punishable with death, but with a double restitution k; and the reason why here only a double restitution and not fourfold is insisted on, as in Ex 22:1 is, because there the theft is persisted in, here not; but either the thief being convicted in his own conscience of his evil, makes confession, or, however, the creatures are found with alive, and so more useful being restored, and, being had again sooner, the loss is not quite so great.
i “inveniendo inventum fuerit”, Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator. k A. Gell, l. 11. c. 18.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(4) If the theft be certainly found in his hand.If he had not converted it, consumed it, or, if it were an animal, killed it, then, instead of the four–fold or five-fold restitution of Exo. 22:1, a restoration of double was to suffice.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
See the gospel sense of this, in that beautiful parable of our Lord: Mat_18:22; Mat_18:25 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 22:4 If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep; he shall restore double.
Ver. 4. He shall restore double. ] In Solomon’s time it was sevenfold. Pro 6:31
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
found: Exo 21:16
he shall restore double: Exo 22:1, Exo 22:7, Exo 22:9, Pro 6:31, Isa 40:2, Jer 16:18, Rev 18:6
Reciprocal: Lev 5:16 – make Lev 6:5 – restore 1Sa 12:3 – I will 1Sa 12:5 – in my hand