Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 22:15
[But] if the owner thereof [be] with it, he shall not make [it] good: if it [be] a hired [thing], it came for his hire.
15. it came for its hire ] and therefore, it is presumed, the owner was prepared to take the risk, so that compensation for injury is unnecessary. The sense expressed by the marg. is hardly likely: for if the cost of compensation in the possible case of injury or death were included in the hire, it would make this unreasonably high. Others understand skr in its usual sense of a ‘hired servant,’ and make an entirely new case of v. 15b, rendering: If it be a hired servant (who, viz., has injured his own master’s animal), it (the damage) cometh into his hire, and is gradually worked off by him (so Kautzsch and Socin, B., Ryssel). The connexion with vv. 14, 15a is however in this case in exact; for the ‘it’ is not, as in v. 15a, one who has borrowed the animal from its owner, but one who has been entrusted with it by his master.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
It came for his hire – The sum paid for hiring was regarded as covering the risk of accident.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
If the owner thereof be with it: the law reasonably presumes, both that the borrower would not abuse it in the sight of its owner, and that the lender might and would take due care about it.
He shall not make it good, except there be some manifest fault in the borrower, as if he should kill or wound the beast in the lenders presence; which exception is easily to be understood from divers other laws of God.
It came for his hire, i.e. the benefit was the lenders, and not the borrowers, and therefore the former reason ceaseth; and whether the master were present or absent, he that receives the gain or hire shall bear the loss, except when it came through the borrowers gross and wilful default.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
But if the owner thereof be with it,…. When it is hurt or dies; for in some cases the owner might go along with his beast, being borrowed or hired to do work with it; or, however, being upon the spot, must be satisfied that it was not ill used; and it may be reasonably presumed he would do all he could to preserve it: and this being the case,
he shall not make it good; that is, the borrower, but the loss would lie upon the lender; seeing this might have been the case if it had been at home, and not borrowed or lent. The Jewish writers understand all this in a different manner, that if the owner is not with it in the time of borrowing, though he is with it in the time of its being hurt, or of its death, the borrower must pay; but if he was with it in the time of borrowing, though not in the time of its receiving damage, or of its death, the borrower was free c; for, as Jarchi says, whether it be in that work (for which he was borrowed), or in another work (it matters not), if he was with it at the time of borrowing, there was no necessity of his being with it at the time of its hurt or death. The reason of which, I must confess, I do not understand; unless the meaning is, that it was necessary that the owner, and the beast, should be both borrowed or hired together; and which indeed seems to be the sense of the Misnah, or tradition d, which runs thus,
“if a man borrows a cow, and borrows or hires its owner with it; or if he hires or borrows the owner, and after that borrows the cow, and it dies, he is free, as it is said,
Ex 22:15 but if he borrows the cow, and afterwards borrows or hires the owner, and it dies, he is bound to pay, as it is said, Ex 22:13 if his owner is not with it, c.”
If it be an hired thing, it came for its hire that is, if the beast which was come to some damage, or was dead, was hired, and not borrowed, then, whether the owner was with it or not at that time, he could demand no more than hire, and the person that hired it was obliged to pay that and no more; or if the owner himself was hired along with his beast, and so was present when it received its damage, or its death, nothing more could come to him than what he agreed for.
c Misn. Bava Metzia, c. 8. sect. 1. Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. d Ibid.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(15) If it be a hired thing.Letting out for hire is akin to lending; but still quite a different transaction. Damage to a thing hired was not to be made good by the hirer, since the risk of it might be considered to have formed part of the calculation upon which the amount of the hire was fixed.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. If it be a hired thing If the owner let it out for money in advance or to be paid, that payment was to be taken as the sole compensation in the case .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 22:15 [But] if the owner thereof [be] with it, he shall not make [it] good: if it [be] an hired [thing], it came for his hire.
Ver. 15. It came for his hire, ] q.d., He shall pay the hire only, and no more, though the owner be not by when it miscarrieth.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
it came for his hire: Zec 8:10
Reciprocal: 2Ki 6:5 – for it was borrowed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
22:15 [But] if the owner thereof [be] with it, he shall not make [it] good: if it [be] an hired [thing], it {g} came for his hire.
(g) He that hired it shall be free by paying the hire.