but if the sun has risen on him, there shall be bloodguilt for him. He shall surely pay. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.
3. He should make full restitution. These words, as I have said, are connected with the first verse, since here the execution of the punishment is only enjoined; as if God forbade thieves to be spared, but that they should pay either twofold or quadruple, or even quintuple, according to the measure of their crime.
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
If the sun be risen upon him,.... Either upon the thief, or upon the master of the house, or the person that finds the thief and smites him that he dies; it matters not which it is interpreted, it is true of both, for when it is risen on the one, it is on the other: there shall be blood shed for him; the person...