“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.
God has relaxed His perfect severity here on account of the people's hardness of heart; these civil laws are not so exact as His eternal justice. The heathen borrowed from this law afterward, yet wherever Solon and the Decemvirs departed from God's rule, they changed it for the worse.
AI summary
Fraud and injustice do not enrich a man but impoverish him; if you unjustly keep another's goods, they will not only waste themselves but consume what is your own. The thief who killed or sold what he stole showed his crime complete and hardened, so he pays fivefold or fourfold as his desert.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 22:1-6
Five oxen for one ox and four sheep for one sheep, because the ox was more valuable and useful, and easier stolen; the greater penalty deters from the theft. The ox's loss hindered plowing and the owner's labor; the sheep's loss brought less harm to the work of the land.
AI summary