“If a man gives to his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep safe, and it dies or is injured or is driven away, without anyone seeing it,
An oath before God ends the dispute when no witness can verify what happened to the beast. The keeper swears the animal perished or was stolen through no fault of his own, and the owner must accept that oath and release him. God Himself stands as the arbiter when human eyes cannot.
AI summary
To betray a trust is unjust and base, and the world is right to cry shame on it. We must guard what is entrusted to us as carefully as our own; and an oath before the judges, sworn by the Lord Himself as witness and avenger, ends the dispute, for perjury startles the conscience as much as any sin.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 22:7-15
The keeper here is one hired to care for the animal. If no one sees what befell it, whether it died, was injured, or carried off by thieves, the liability depends on the type of loss. A hired keeper swears only for beasts torn by wild beasts or lost to theft, but pays for what dies under his watch.
AI summary