Exodus 22:1 - Meaning and Application

Here are the laws concerning theft. If a man steals cattle, which was a major part of wealth in those days, and the animals are found in his possession, he must repay double (Exodus 22:4). In that way, he both makes up for the wrong and suffers for the crime. Later, God made a merciful provision: if the thief was convicted in his conscience and confessed before anyone discovered or investigated it, he only had to return what he had stolen and add one-fifth more (Leviticus 6:4, Leviticus 6:5).

If he had killed or sold the sheep or ox he stole, and so kept going in his sin, he had to repay five oxen for one ox and four sheep for one sheep (Exodus 22:1). The law required more for an ox than for a sheep because the owner lost not only the animal, but also the daily work the ox provided. This teaches that fraud and injustice do not enrich people. Instead, if we wrongly gain and hold what belongs to another, it will not only waste away, it will also eat into what is our own.

If the thief could not pay back what he owed, he was to be sold as a slave to cover the loss (Exodus 22:3). The court was to carry this out, and it is likely that the injured person received the money. In a similar way, some criminals in our own laws are sent away to plantations, where only then do Englishmen learn what slavery really is.

If a thief broke into a house at night and was killed in the act, his blood was on his own head, and the killer was not guilty of murder (Exodus 22:2). Just as a person who commits an unlawful act bears the blame for the harm that follows to others, so he also bears the blame for what follows to himself. A man's house is his castle, and both God's law and human law protect it. Anyone who attacks it does so at his own risk. Yet if the thief was killed in the daytime, the one who killed him had to answer for it (Exodus 22:3), unless it was necessary to defend his own life. We should be careful even with the lives of bad people. The magistrate should give us justice, and we must not take revenge ourselves.

There are also laws concerning trespass (Exodus 22:5). If a person deliberately lets his cattle wander into his neighbor's field, he must repay with the best of his own. Our law makes a much bigger difference between this and other thefts than Moses' law did. From this, the Jews learned a general rule, that restitution should always be made with the best, and that no one should keep animals likely to trespass and cause harm. We should be more careful not to do wrong than to avoid being wronged, because suffering wrong is only an affliction, but doing wrong is a sin, and sin is always worse than affliction.

There are also laws about damage caused by fire (Exodus 22:6). A person who meant only to burn thorns might still be responsible if the fire spread to the grain. Hot-headed people should be careful, because while they claim they are only pulling up weeds, they may uproot the wheat as well. If a fire does damage, the one who started it must answer for it, even if it cannot be proved that he meant the harm. People must answer for carelessness as well as for malice. We must be careful about starting quarrels, because something that seems small can grow into something far greater. Then we must bear the blame, if, like a madman, we throw around firebrands, arrows, and death, and say we meant no harm. We will watch ourselves much more closely if we remember that we are accountable not only for the harm we do, but also for the harm we cause by carelessness.