22
📚“If a man steals an ox, or a sheep, and kills it, or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.2 📚“If a thief is found breaking in, and is struck and dies, no blood is to be shed for him in punishment. 3 📚If the sun has risen on him when he breaks in, blood is to be shed for him. A thief must make full restitution. If he does not have anything, then he must be sold for his theft.
22:2,3 A person in a house at night would feel more danger from a thief and would be justified in striking in self-defense.⚜
4 📚“If the stolen animal is found in his hands alive, whether it is an ox, or donkey, or sheep, he must repay double.
5 📚“If a man lets out a field or vineyard to be grazed, and puts his own animal so that it feeds in another man’s field, he must make restitution from the best in his own field, and from the best of his own vineyard.
6 📚“If fire breaks out, and catches in thorns, so that the stacks of grain or the standing grain, or the field, are burnt up by it, the one who started the fire must surely make restitution.
7 📚“If a man gives his neighbour money or goods for safekeeping, and it is stolen out of the man’s house, if the thief is caught, he must pay double. 8 📚If the thief is not caught, then the owner of the house shall be brought to the judges, to see whether he laid his hands on his neighbour’s possessions. 9 📚For every case of transgression, whether it is about an ox, or donkey, or sheep, or garment, or any kind of lost thing which another claims to be his, the case of the two parties shall come before the judges, and the one the judges declare guilty must pay double to his neighbour.
10 📚“If a man gives a donkey, or an ox, or a sheep, or any animal, to his neighbour for safekeeping, and it dies, or is hurt, or driven away without anyone seeing it, 11 📚then an oath before the LORD is to be made between the two of them that he has not laid his hands on his neighbour’s possessions, and their owner must accept it, and the neighbor is not to make restitution. 12 📚But if it has been stolen from him, he must make restitution to the owner of it. 13 📚If it has been torn in pieces, then let him bring it as evidence, and he shall not make restitution for that which was torn.
14 📚“And if a man borrows any animal from his neighbour, and it is hurt, or dies, the owner of it not being with it, he shall surely make restitution. 15 📚But if the owner of it is with it, he shall not make restitution. If it is hired, it came for its hire. 16 📚And if a man seduces a girl who is not engaged to be married, and lies with her, he shall surely pay a dowry for her to be his wife. 17 📚If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.
22:16-17 Deut 22:28-29 In Israel a bridegroom paid a dowry to the girl’s father – the opposite of the custom in India.⚜
18 📚“You shall not permit a witch to live.
22:18 Lev 19:31; 20:6, 27; Deut 18:10-11; Jer 27:9-10. Sorcerers and sorceresses are not servants of God, and not in contact with God. The result of their activity is to turn people away from the truth and away from the true God. That danger had to be dealt with drastically. See also Acts 13:6-11; Rev 9:21; 18:23; 21:8; 22:15.⚜
19 📚“Whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death.
20 📚“He who sacrifices to any god, except to the LORD alone, shall be utterly destroyed.
22:20 Ex 32:8; 34:15; Lev 17:7; Num 25:2; Deut 17:2-3, 5; 1 Kings 18:40; 2 Kings 10:25; 1 Cor 10:20. The penalty for this sin was great because it was breaking the first and most important of the ten commandments (Ex 20:3). The Creator demands that worship be given to Him alone and not to anything or anyone else called a god.⚜
21 📚“You shall not wrong a foreigner or oppress him, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
22 📚“You shall not mistreat any widow, or fatherless child. 23 📚If you mistreat them in any way, and they cry out to me at all, I will surely hear their cry, 24 📚and my wrath will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will be widows, and your children fatherless.
22:22-24 Deut 24:17-18; Ps 68:5; 82:1-4; Prov 23:10-11; Jer 9:24. The God of the Bible (the only God there is) loves justice and will punish those who trouble the weak and helpless. Injustice makes God angry. Notes on His anger at Num 25:3.⚜
25 📚“If you lend money to any of the poor among my people, you shall not be like a moneylender; you must not charge him interest. 26 📚If you ever take your neighbour’s cloak as a pledge, you shall deliver it to him by sundown; 27 📚for that is his only covering; it is his garment for his body. What else will he sleep in? And when it comes about that he cries out to me, I will hear; for I am gracious.
22:26,27 God sees such small things and He cares.⚜
28 📚“You shall not revile God 📖, or curse a ruler of your people.
29 📚“You shall not hold back the first of your harvest and of your vintage. You shall give me the firstborn of your sons.
22:29 God had to come first in their thinking. It is God who gives the land, the rain and the harvest, and He must be remembered and honored (Ex 23:16, 19; Deut 26:2-11; Prov 3:9; Mal 3:10).⚜
30 📚“You shall do the same with your oxen, and with your sheep. It is to be seven days with its mother; on the eighth day you shall give it to me.
31 📚“And you shall be holy men to me. You shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field; you must throw it to the dogs.