Keluaran 21:32

21:32 If the ox gores a male servant or a female servant, the owner ¹  must pay thirty shekels of silver, ²  and the ox must be stoned. ³ 

Keluaran 21:28

Laws about Animals

21:28 ⁴ “If an ox ⁵  gores a man or a woman so that either dies, ⁶  then the ox must surely ⁷  be stoned and its flesh must not be eaten, but the owner of the ox will be acquitted.

Keluaran 21:35-36

21:35 If the ox of one man injures the ox of his neighbor so that it dies, then they will sell the live ox and divide its proceeds, ⁸  and they will also divide the dead ox. ⁹  21:36 Or if it is known that the ox had the habit of goring, and its owner did not take the necessary precautions, he must surely pay ¹⁰  ox for ox, and the dead animal will become his. ¹¹ 

Keluaran 23:4

23:4 “If you encounter ¹²  your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, you must by all means return ¹³  it to him.

Keluaran 34:19

34:19 “Every firstborn of the womb ¹⁴  belongs to me, even every firstborn ¹⁵  of your cattle that is a male, ¹⁶  whether ox or sheep.

Keluaran 21:29

21:29 But if the ox had the habit of goring, and its owner was warned, ¹⁷  and he did not take the necessary precautions, ¹⁸  and then it killed a man or a woman, the ox must be stoned and the man must be put to death.

Keluaran 22:1

Laws about Property

22:1 ¹⁹ (21:37) ²⁰  “If a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he must pay back ²¹  five head of cattle for the ox, and four sheep for the one sheep. ²² 

Keluaran 20:17

20:17 “You shall not covet ²³  your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.” ²⁴ 

Keluaran 21:33

21:33 “If a man opens a pit or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,

Keluaran 22:4

22:4 If the stolen item should in fact be found ²⁵  alive in his possession, ²⁶  whether it be an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he must pay back double. ²⁷ 

Keluaran 22:30

22:30 You must also do this for your oxen and for your sheep; seven days they may remain with their mothers, but give them to me on the eighth day.

Keluaran 23:12

23:12 For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you must cease, in order that your ox and your donkey may rest and that your female servant’s son and any hired help ²⁸  may refresh themselves. ²⁹ 

Keluaran 22:10

22:10 If a man gives his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep, and it dies or is hurt ³⁰  or is carried away ³¹  without anyone seeing it, ³² 

Keluaran 22:9

22:9 In all cases of illegal possessions, ³³  whether for an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any kind of lost item, about which someone says ‘This belongs to me,’ ³⁴  the matter of the two of them will come before the judges, ³⁵  and the one whom ³⁶  the judges declare guilty ³⁷  must repay double to his neighbor.

[21:32]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the owner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:32]  ² sn A shekel was a unit for measure by means of a scale. Both the weight and the value of a shekel of silver are hard to determine. “Though there is no certainty, the shekel is said to weigh about 11,5 grams” (C. Houtman, Exodus, 3:181). Over four hundred years earlier, Joseph was sold into Egypt for 20 shekels. The free Israelite citizen was worth about 50 shekels (Lev 27:3f.).

[21:32]  ³ sn See further B. S. Jackson, “The Goring Ox Again [Ex. 21,28-36],” JJP 18 (1974): 55-94.

[21:28]  ⁴ sn The point that this section of the laws makes is that one must ensure the safety of others by controlling the circumstances.

[21:28]  ⁵ tn Traditionally “ox,” but “bull” would also be suitable. The term may refer to one of any variety of large cattle.

[21:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he dies”; KJV “that they die”; NAB, NASB “to death.”

[21:28]  ⁷ tn The text uses סָקוֹל יִסָּקֵל (saqol yissaqel), a Qal infinitive absolute with a Niphal imperfect. The infinitive intensifies the imperfect, which here has an obligatory nuance or is a future of instruction.

[21:35]  ⁸ tn Literally “its silver” or “silver for it.”

[21:35]  ⁹ tn Heb “divide the dead.” The noun “ox” has been supplied.

[21:36]  ¹⁰ tn The construction now uses the same Piel imperfect (v. 34) but adds the infinitive absolute to it for emphasis.

[21:36]  ¹¹ sn The point of this section (21:28-36) seems to be that one must ensure the safety of others by controlling one’s property and possessions. This section pertained to neglect with animals, but the message would have applied to similar situations. The people of God were to take heed to ensure the well-being of others, and if there was a problem, it had to be made right.

[23:4]  ¹² tn Heb “meet” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).

[23:4]  ¹³ tn The construction uses the imperfect tense (taken here as an obligatory imperfect) and the infinitive absolute for emphasis.

[34:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “everything that opens the womb.”

[34:19]  ¹⁵ tn Here too: everything that “opens [the womb].”

[34:19]  ¹⁶ tn The verb basically means “that drops a male.” The verb is feminine, referring to the cattle.

[21:29]  ¹⁷ tn The Hophal perfect has the idea of “attested, testified against.”

[21:29]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he was not keeping it” or perhaps guarding or watching it (referring to the ox).

[22:1]  ¹⁹ sn The next section of laws concerns property rights. These laws protected property from thieves and oppressors, but also set limits to retribution. The message could be: God’s laws demand that the guilty make restitution for their crimes against property and that the innocent be exonerated.

[22:1]  ²⁰ sn Beginning with 22:1, the verse numbers through 22:31 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 22:1 ET = 21:37 HT, 22:2 ET = 22:1 HT, etc., through 22:31 ET = 22:30 HT. Thus in the English Bible ch. 22 has 31 verses, while in the Hebrew Bible it has 30 verses, with the one extra verse attached to ch. 21 in the Hebrew Bible.

[22:1]  ²¹ tn The imperfect tense here has the nuance of obligatory imperfect – he must pay back.

[22:1]  ²² tn בָּקַר (baqar) and צֹאן (tso’n) are the categories to which the ox and the sheep belonged, so that the criminal had some latitude in paying back animals.

[20:17]  ²³ tn The verb חָמַד (khamad) focuses not on an external act but on an internal mental activity behind the act, the motivation for it. The word can be used in a very good sense (Ps 19:10; 68:16), but it has a bad connotation in contexts where the object desired is off limits. This command is aimed at curtailing the greedy desire for something belonging to a neighbor, a desire that leads to the taking of it or the attempt to take it. It was used in the story of the Garden of Eden for the tree that was desired.

[20:17]  ²⁴ sn See further G. Wittenburg, “The Tenth Commandment in the Old Testament,” Journal for Theology in South Africa 21 (1978): 3-17: and E. W. Nicholson, “The Decalogue as the Direct Address of God,” VT 27 (1977): 422-33.

[22:4]  ²⁵ tn The construction uses a Niphal infinitive absolute and a Niphal imperfect: if it should indeed be found. Gesenius says that in such conditional clauses the infinitive absolute has less emphasis, but instead emphasizes the condition on which some consequence depends (see GKC 342-43 §113.o).

[22:4]  ²⁶ tn Heb “in his hand.”

[22:4]  ²⁷ sn He must pay back one for what he took, and then one for the penalty – his loss as he was inflicting a loss on someone else.

[23:12]  ²⁸ tn Heb “alien,” or “resident foreigner.” Such an individual would have traveled out of need and depended on the goodwill of the people around him. The rendering “hired help” assumes that the foreigner is mentioned in this context because he is working for an Israelite and will benefit from the Sabbath rest, along with his employer.

[23:12]  ²⁹ tn The verb is וְיִּנָּפֵשׁ (vÿyyinnafesh); it is related to the word usually translated “soul” or “life.”

[22:10]  ³⁰ tn The form is a Niphal participle from the verb “to break” – “is broken,” which means harmed, maimed, or hurt in any way.

[22:10]  ³¹ tn This verb is frequently used with the meaning “to take captive.” The idea here then is that raiders or robbers have carried off the animal.

[22:10]  ³² tn Heb “there is no one seeing.”

[22:9]  ³³ tn Heb “concerning every kind [thing] of trespass.”

[22:9]  ³⁴ tn The text simply has “this is it” (הוּא זֶה, hu’ zeh).

[22:9]  ³⁵ tn Again, or “God.”

[22:9]  ³⁶ tn This kind of clause Gesenius calls an independent relative clause – it does not depend on a governing substantive but itself expresses a substantival idea (GKC 445-46 §138.e).

[22:9]  ³⁷ tn The verb means “to be guilty” in Qal; in Hiphil it would have a declarative sense, because a causative sense would not possibly fit.