33 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Exodus 22 This chapter contains various laws concerning theft, Exodus 22:1, concerning damage done to fields and vineyards by beasts, and to corn in stacks or standing, by fire, Exodus 22:5, concerning anything or creature deposited in the hands of a neighbour, and they be stolen or lost by one means or another, Exodus 22:7,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
If a man shall steal an ox or a sheep,.... In which the substance of men chiefly lay in those times, and particularly the people of Israel, who were now come out of Egypt, with their flocks and herds, and these lying near together, were the more liable to be stolen; and hence also the laws in the preceding chapter concerning oxen and damages done...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
The laws of this chapter relate, I. To the eighth commandment, concerning theft (ver. 1-4), trespass by cattle (ver. 5), damage by fire (ver. 6), trusts (ver. 7-13), borrowing cattle (ver. 14, 15), or money, ver. 25-27. II. To the seventh commandment. Against fornication (ver. 16, 17), bestiality, ver. 19. III. To the first table, forbidding...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
If a thief be found breaking up,.... An house, in order to steal money, jewels, household goods, c. or breaking through any fence, hedge, or wall of any enclosure, where oxen, or sheep, or any other creatures are, in order to take them away: the Targum of Jonathan is, "if in the hole of a wall (or window of it) a thief be found'' that is, in the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
If the sun be risen upon him,.... Either upon the thief, or upon the master of the house, or the person that finds the thief and smites him that he dies; it matters not which it is interpreted, it is true of both, for when it is risen on the one, it is on the other: [there shall be] blood [shed] for him; the person that kills him shall die for it:...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten,.... Which is not his own, by putting cattle into it to feed upon it, as it is explained in the next clause: and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man's field; do damage in one or both those two ways, either by his feet treading down the grass and fruits of the earth, which the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
If fire break out,.... Even though of itself, as Jarchi interprets it: and catch in thorns a thorn hedge or fence, with which cornfields might be en closed: so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed [therewith]; whether it be corn cut down, bound up in sheaves, and laid up in heaps or stacks, or whether it be yet...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
If a man shall deliver unto his neighbour money or stock to keep,.... Without any reward for keeping it, as the Targum of Jonathan; and so other Jewish writers (p) understand this passage of such as keep a deposit freely, having nothing for it; whether it be money or goods, gold, silver, jewels, raiment, household stuff or any kind of vessels or...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
If the thief be not found,.... And so no account can be given of the goods deposited, what is become of them, and it becomes a doubtful case whether they have been stolen or embezzled, and there is suspicion of the latter: then the master of the house shall be brought unto the judges: here called Elohim, gods, because they were God's vicegerents,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For all manner of trespass,.... With respect to what is committed to a man's trust, and it is lost to the owner of it, there must be somewhere or other a trespass committed, either by the person into whose hands it was put, or by a thief that has stolen it from him: whether it be for ox, for ass, for sheep, for raiment, or for any manner of lost...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
If a man deliver to his neighbour an ass, or an ox, or a sheep, or any beast to keep,.... And he keeps it without a reward, as the Targum of Jonathan; but Jarchi and Aben Ezra more rightly interpret this of one that keeps for hire, as herdsmen, shepherds, c. The Jews say (t) there are "four sorts of keepers he that keeps for nought (or freely), he...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both,.... Either by the one, the keeper, for the satisfaction of the owner, or by them both; by the owner, that he delivered such and such cattle to the keeper; and by the keeper, that he was no ways concerned in the death, hurt, or carrying off of the same: and this is called "the oath of the Lord",...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And if it be stolen from him,.... Or "but if" (x) it was taken away by theft; and that "from with him" (y), as it may be literally rendered, from among his own cattle, and they not taken; and he being present, pretending to have an eye upon them and keep them, but was careless and negligent, at least, if he did not connive at the theft: he shall...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
If it be torn in pieces,.... By some wild beast, at least as pretended: [then] let him bring it for witness; part of that which is torn, that it may be witness for him that it was torn, as in Amos 3:12 as Aben Ezra observes; and so the Jerusalem Targurn, "let him bring of the members of it a witness,'' which would make it a clear case that it had...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And if a man borrow [ought] of his neighbour,.... Any beast, as it should seem, as an ox to plough with, an ass, horse, or camel to ride on, though the Jewish writers carry it also to any kind of household stuff: and if he be hurt or die; if any damage comes to it, or it dies while it is in the borrower's hands, and when employed in that work for...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And if a man entice a maid, that is not betrothed,.... For one might be betrothed according to the custom of those times, and not be married, or the nuptials consummated, and so be yet a maid or virgin; but being betrothed, it made the case different, because such an one was as a wife to a man: but the case here supposed is of a maid not...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him,.... For wife, either because of his character, family, or circumstances; or, however, being disagreeable to him on one account or another, and therefore will by no means agree to marry his daughter to him, and not only give him an absolute denial, but resolutely persist in it: the Targum of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou shall not suffer a witch to live. Such that had familiar spirits, and conversed with them, and by means thereof got knowledge of many things relating to persons, at least pretending they did; and who did or seemed to do many strange and surprising feats, as even to raise the spirits of departed persons, to converse with them and gain...