Exodus 22

Laws for getting along with neighbors

Payback times five

1If you steal a bull or a sheep and then kill it and sell it, your payback is four to five times the value of the animals. Replace one bull will five bulls. Replace one sheep with four sheep. 2It’s no crime to beat and kill a thief breaking into your home in the dark. 3But if it happens in daylight, it’s murder. When you catch a thief, the thief must give back everything stolen, or somehow make it good. If the thief can’t, you can recoup what you lost by selling the thief.

4If the thief stole something living—such as a bull, donkey, or sheep—and you find it alive in the thief’s possession, payback is double. You get two for the theft of one. 5If you let your livestock graze your field to the dirt and then you turn them loose onto someone else’s property, you need to make restitution. You owe that person grazing rights to your finest fields and vineyards.

6If you start a fire that jumps to bushes and spreads to grain fields or to harvested grain, you just bought the crop. Pay the farmer.

When a neighbor does you wrong

7Let’s say you give your neighbor something for safekeeping—money or some object. If a thief steals it and is caught, payback is double. The thief owes twice the value of the stolen object. 8If the thief isn’t caught, your neighbor needs to stand before judges who investigate the case, to make sure your neighbor isn’t the thief.

9Let’s say someone did something wrong, perhaps stealing a bull, donkey, sheep, or clothing. Or maybe that person falsely claimed to own something that was lost and found, saying, “That’s mine.” If the case is disputed, take it to judges who will decide what to do, with God watching. Anyone judged guilty will pay double to the offended party. 10Let’s say you give your neighbor some livestock for safekeeping, maybe a donkey, bull, or sheep. And let’s say it’s stolen, injured, or dies. 11Your neighbor has to swear, with God watching, that it wasn’t the neighbor’s fault. If you accept your neighbor’s word, your neighbor doesn’t have to cover your loss. 12One exception. If it was stolen under your neighbor’s watch, your neighbor has to cover your loss. 13If a wild animal killed it and shredded it, your neighbor needs to bring the mangled remains of the animal as evidence to prove what happened. If the story checks out, your neighbor doesn’t have to pay you anything.

14If you borrow an animal from your neighbor and the animal is injured or dies while it’s in your care and the owner is not around, you need to pay the owner the full price of the animal. 15But if the owner is with the animal, you don’t have to pay the owner anything. And if you rented the animal, the rental fee covers accidental injury or death.

Major no-nos

16If a man talks an unengaged virgin into having sex with him, he has to marry her. And he has to pay her father for the privilege of marrying her. [1] 17If the woman’s father refuses to let the man marry her, the man still has to pay the full amount expected for virgins. 18Witchcraft is a capital offense. So, execute anyone convicted of sorcery. 19Execute anyone convicted of having sex with an animal. 20Execute anyone who offers sacrifices to any god other than the LORD alone.

Be kind to immigrants

21Don’t mistreat immigrants or newcomers. Remember, you were once immigrants in Egypt. 22Don’t make life difficult for widows or orphans. 23If you mistreat them even slightly, and they call on me for help, be sure of this: I will hear them. 24My rage will consume you. Your wife will become a widow. Your children will lose their father.

You’re God’s people, so act like it

25If you lend money to any of my chosen people who have fallen on hard times and need financial help, do not charge interest. [2] You are not to make a profit off of this. 26If you take a neighbor’s cloak as collateral, return it before the sun goes down. 27The cloak is that person’s cover for the night. What else is your neighbor to cover up with when it’s time to sleep? And if your neighbor comes to me to complain about you withholding that cloak, be sure of this, I will listen because I am kind.

28Don’t badmouth God and don’t badmouth the leader of your people. 29When you harvest your grain and wine, be sure to bring me my share of the crops. And don’t forget to dedicate your oldest sons to me. [3] 30Dedicate the firstborn calves and lambs as well. On the eighth day after they are born, give them to me. [4] 31You are my people. You’re devoted to me and therefore holy to me. So, I don’t want you eating any meat torn to pieces by wild animals in the field. Throw that garbage to the dogs.

Footnotes

Intro Notes for Exodus

122:16

A man generally paid his future father-in-law for the right to marry the daughter. This was partly a gift, but also compensation for the loss of the daughter’s help around the house. Her father would no longer have his daughter to do chores she typically did each day (see also Genesis 34:12). If a man raped a virgin who was not engaged, he had to pay her father 50 shekels of silver. That’s about 1 1/4 pounds or 575 grams (Deuteronomy 22:28-29). He also had to offer to marry her and could never divorce her.

222:25

This rule seems to apply only to the Hebrew ancestors of the Jewish people and those who were a part of their group. It does not seem to apply to outsiders. Interest rates in Bible times in what is now the Middle East could go as high as 20 to 50 percent. That could ruin many borrowers. Especially those in need.

322:29

God claimed dibbs on Israel’s firstborn children and animals. They didn’t belong to the parents. They belonged to God. The first male child in each family was often considered the most important. He got a double share of the family inheritance. In the first reported sacrifice offered to God, Abel “killed the first lambs born to his prized sheep” (Genesis 4:4). The order God gave Moses wasn’t about human sacrifice, which God would outlaw. He provided a way for the parents to buy back (redeem) their children. The reason behind the ritual was to remind Israelites and their descendants, including Jewish people today, that God took the lives of Egypt’s firstborn, but spared the children of Israel. See also Exodus 13:12-15 and Numbers 18:15-16 for the process of reclaiming the children.

422:30

Although God provided a way for parents to buy back their firstborn sons, livestock weren’t so lucky. It seems the firstborn cattle and lambs were destined for slaughter.