Xuất Ai Cập Ký 22

Theft and damage to property

¹Suppose a thief is caught in the act of breaking in, and someone strikes him and he dies. Then there is no bloodguilt for his death.^{a 2}But if the sun is already up when it happens, the killing brings bloodguilt. The thief must repay in full; if he owns nothing, he is to be sold to make up for what he took. ³Should the animal he stole, whether an ox, a donkey or a sheep, still be alive and in his hands when it is found, he must repay double.

⁴Suppose someone turns animals out to graze a field or a vineyard, and lets them loose so that they feed in another person’s field. Then the best that their own field and vineyard produce must be used to repay the loss.^bc

⁵Suppose a fire is lit, and it catches in the thorns and spreads, and stacked grain, grain still standing, or a whole field burns up. The person who lit the fire must pay in full for the loss.

Things left in a neighbor’s care

⁶Suppose someone hands money or other things over to a neighbor to look after, and a thief takes them from that house. If the thief is found, he must repay twice the value. ⁷If the thief is not found, the owner of the house is to come before God and declare that he did not lay a hand on his neighbor’s goods.^{d 8}Whenever there is a charge of wrongdoing over an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a cloak or anything lost, and someone claims, ‘This is it,’ the two of them shall take their case to God. The one whom God condemns must repay their neighbor double.^e

⁹Suppose someone entrusts a donkey, an ox, a sheep or any other animal to a neighbor’s care, and it dies, is hurt or is carried off when no one is there to see. ¹⁰Then the two of them shall settle it with an oath of the LORD: the one who kept the animal swears to having taken none of the neighbor’s property. The owner must accept the oath, and nothing has to be paid back.^{f 11}But if the animal was actually stolen from the one keeping it, that person must repay its owner. ¹²If beasts tore it to pieces, the keeper is to bring what is left as evidence and owes nothing for the animal that was torn.

¹³Anyone who borrows a neighbor’s animal must make full repayment if it is hurt or dies while its owner is absent. ¹⁴But if the owner was present, there is no repayment. If the animal was rented, the owner’s loss is met by the rent.^g

A seduced virgin

¹⁵If a man talks a virgin who is not betrothed into lying with him, he must pay the price paid for a bride and take her as his wife. ¹⁶Should her father flatly refuse to let him marry her, the man must still weigh out silver equal to the price paid for a virgin bride.

Death penalties and care for the weak

¹⁷You shall not let a sorceress live.

¹⁸Death is the penalty for anyone who lies with an animal.

¹⁹Anyone who offers sacrifice to other gods, and not to the LORD alone, shall be devoted to destruction. ²⁰Do no wrong to a foreigner living among you, and do not oppress anyone like that, because you yourselves lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt. ²¹You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. ²²Should you afflict them, you can be sure that when they cry out to me, I will hear their cry, ²³and my wrath will burn, and I will put you to death by the sword; your own wives will then be widows, and your children will have no fathers.

Lending to the poor

²⁴When you lend money to my people, to a poor person living near you, do not deal with that person as a creditor would, and do not make them pay interest. ²⁵Should you hold your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge for a debt, you must hand it back to its owner before sunset, ²⁶for it is the only covering they have, the cloak that wraps their body. In what will they lie down to sleep? When that neighbor cries out to me, I will hear, because I am gracious.

Firstfruits and firstborn

²⁷Do not speak contemptuously of God, and do not call down a curse on a leader of your people.^{h 28}Do not be slow to give from the abundance of your harvest or from what flows from your presses. Your firstborn sons you shall give to me.^{i 29}You are to do likewise with your oxen and your sheep: for seven days the firstborn remains with its mother, and on the eighth day you shall give it to me. ³⁰You shall be holy people to me. Any meat torn by beasts out in the field is not for you to eat; it is to be thrown to the dogs.