Chapter Overview
Summary
Exodus 22 continues the Covenant Code with laws on theft (1–4), property damage (5–14), sexual ethics (15–16), capital offenses (17–19), and social ethics toward vulnerable persons (20–30). The chapter's ethical high points — the widow-and-orphan protection (22:22–23), the prohibition of interest-charging on the poor (22:24), and the consecration of firstborn (22:28–29) — shape the biblical social-justice tradition that the prophets and Jesus invoke.
Notable Variants
Chapter numbering differs slightly between LXX, MT, and modern English: MT/LXX 22:1 = English 22:2 onward; verse numbers reflect Hebrew versification. The sorceress-prohibition at 22:17 uses pharmakoi vocabulary inherited by NT vice-lists; the widow-orphan cry-to-God at 22:22–23 supplies the compassion-language that James 1:27 cites; the interest-prohibition at 22:24 shapes medieval Christian usury ethics.
Structural Notes
LXX Exodus 22 has 30 verses (some English editions re-number as 31 due to 21:37 vs 22:1 split).
If a thief is caught tunneling in and is struck and killed, there is no bloodguilt for his death.
The night-tunneling-thief / no-bloodguilt provision tracks MT.
If the sun has risen on him, there is bloodguilt for killing him. The thief must make full restitution; if he has nothing, he is sold for his theft.
The day-thief / bloodguilt-applies / restitution-or-sale provision tracks MT. The sale-for-unpaid-theft mechanism establishes a debt-bondage rationale.
If the stolen animal is actually found alive in his possession — whether ox, donkey, or sheep — he pays double.
The double-restitution-for-alive-recovered-animal provision tracks MT.
When a man lets his livestock graze in a field or vineyard, and sends his animal to feed in someone else's field, he must pay restitution from the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard.
The grazing-damages / best-of-field-and-vineyard restitution tracks MT.
When fire breaks out and catches in thornbushes, and stacked grain or standing grain or the entire field is consumed, the one who started the fire must make full restitution.
The fire-spreading-to-neighbor's-field liability tracks MT. James 3:5–6 ('the tongue is a fire … setting on fire the entire course of life') uses the same fire-image for destructive speech.
When a man gives his neighbor money or goods for safekeeping, and they are stolen from the man's house — if the thief is caught, the thief pays double.
The theft-of-deposited-property / double-restitution provision tracks MT.
If the thief is not caught, the owner of the house must come before God to determine whether he himself took his neighbor's property.
The 'before God' (pros ton theon) adjudication tracks MT. The LXX's pros ton theon suggests sanctuary-oracle consultation, where disputed cases reach a divinely-adjudicated outcome.
In any case of disputed ownership — whether over an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any lost item — where someone claims, 'This is mine,' the case of both parties comes before God. Whichever one God finds guilty must pay double to his neighbor.
The general deposited-property dispute resolution tracks MT. The principle of double-restitution-for-guilty becomes foundational to biblical tort law.
When a man gives his neighbor a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any animal to look after, and it dies, or is injured, or is carried off, with no witness present —
The animal-entrusted-to-neighbor-damaged tracks MT.
an oath before the LORD must stand between them both — that the custodian did not misappropriate his neighbor's property. The owner must accept this, and no restitution is owed.
The oath-before-the-LORD adjudication tracks MT. The standing of oath-taking in adjudication becomes a staple of biblical jurisprudence that Heb 6:16 invokes.
But if it is in fact stolen from his custody, he must pay restitution to its owner.
The theft-by-custodian / restitution provision tracks MT.
If it was torn apart by a predator, let him bring the remains as evidence — he does not pay for the torn animal.
The predator-killed-animal / evidence-based-exemption provision tracks MT. 'Let him bring the remains as evidence' establishes ancient-Near-Eastern evidentiary practice in biblical form.
When a man borrows an animal from his neighbor, and it is injured or dies while its owner is not present, the borrower must pay in full.
The borrowed-animal-injured-without-owner-present / full-restitution provision tracks MT.
If the owner was present with it, the borrower does not pay. If it was a hired animal, the loss is covered by the rental fee.
The present-owner / no-restitution and hired-animal / rental-covers-loss provisions track MT.
When a man seduces a young woman who is not betrothed and sleeps with her, he must pay the bride-price and take her as his wife.
The seduction-of-unbetrothed-woman / bride-price-and-marriage provision tracks MT. The provision assumes a particular ancient-Israelite marriage-economics that later Jewish and Christian ethics have debated.
If her father firmly refuses to give her to him, the man must still pay the full amount of the bride-price for young women.
The father's-refusal / full-bride-price provision tracks MT.
You must not let a sorceress live.
Masoretic (WLC)
מְכַשֵּׁפָה לֹא תְחַיֶּה
You must not let a sorceress live
Septuagint (LXX)
φαρμακοὺς οὐ περιποιήσετε
You shall not preserve alive sorcerers/poisoners
The LXX's pharmakoi ('sorcerers, poison-mixers') is the plural masculine rather than the Hebrew feminine mekhashefah ('sorceress'). The LXX broadens the scope from the female practitioner to all practitioners.
Galatians 5:20 ('the works of the flesh are … sorcery,' pharmakeia), Revelation 9:21, 18:23, 21:8, 22:15 all use pharmak- vocabulary for the excluded class. The NT's anti-sorcery vice-lists trace to this LXX-Exodus 22:17.
The text's uncomfortable severity — capital punishment for sorcery — has been the basis of much theological and historical reflection, including the troubling early-modern witch-persecution tradition that cited (and distorted) this verse.
Anyone who lies with an animal must be put to death.
The bestiality capital-penalty tracks MT. Levitical parallels at Lev 18:23 and 20:15–16 develop the prohibition.
Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the LORD alone must be completely destroyed.
The sacrificing-to-other-gods penalty tracks MT. The LXX's exolethreuthēsetai ('shall be utterly destroyed') is the same cherem-vocabulary (total devotion to destruction) that runs through Joshua.
You must not mistreat or oppress a resident foreigner, because you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
Masoretic (WLC)
וְגֵר לֹא־תוֹנֶה … כִּי־גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם
You must not mistreat or oppress a resident foreigner, because you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ προσήλυτον οὐ κακώσετε … προσήλυτοι γὰρ ἦτε ἐν γῇ Αἰγύπτῳ
You shall not wrong a proselyte … for you were proselytes in the land of Egypt
Hebrew ger ('sojourner, resident alien') is rendered prosēlytos — the Greek term for 'one who has come to' a community, and specifically in the LXX for the convert or attached Gentile. The LXX's proselyte-vocabulary shaped the NT's categorization of Gentile converts (Matt 23:15, Acts 2:10, 6:5, 13:43).
The 'you were proselytes in Egypt' theological rationale — God's ethic of the stranger based on Israel's own stranger-experience — becomes one of the most-quoted passages in biblical ethics. Deuteronomy 10:19, Leviticus 19:34, and 23:7 all invoke the same rationale.
Hebrews 11:13 ('they confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth,' xenoi kai parepidēmoi) and 1 Peter 2:11 ('as strangers and exiles,' hōs paroikous kai parepidēmous) translate the LXX stranger-identity into NT Christian self-understanding.
You must not afflict any widow or orphan.
The prohibition of afflicting widows and orphans tracks MT.
If you do afflict them in any way, and they cry out to me at all, I will surely hear their cry.
The 'they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry' divine-hearing promise tracks MT. James 5:4 ('the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth') and the prophetic cry-of-the-oppressed tradition all draw on this LXX-Exodus 22:22 assurance.
Then my anger will burn hot, and I will kill you by the sword — and your own wives will become widows and your own children orphans.
The divine retribution ('your wives will become widows, your children orphans') tracks MT. The talionic-reciprocity principle underlies biblical prophetic invective (Jer 18:21).
If you lend money to any of my people — the poor among you — you must not act as a creditor toward him. You must not charge him interest.
Masoretic (WLC)
אִם־כֶּסֶף תַּלְוֶה אֶת־עַמִּי אֶת־הֶעָנִי עִמָּךְ לֹא־תִהְיֶה לוֹ כְּנֹשֶׁה לֹא־תְשִׂימוּן עָלָיו נֶשֶׁךְ
If you lend money to any of my people — the poor among you — you must not act as a creditor toward him. You must not charge him interest
Septuagint (LXX)
ἐὰν δὲ ἀργύριον ἐκδανείσῃς τῷ ἀδελφῷ τῷ πενιχρῷ παρὰ σοί οὐκ ἔσῃ αὐτὸν κατεπείγων οὐκ ἐπιθήσεις αὐτῷ τόκον
If you lend money to your poor brother, you shall not press him, you shall not charge him interest
The interest-prohibition (tokon, literally 'offspring' — money 'giving birth' to money) shapes the entire biblical economics of lending. Deuteronomy 23:19–20, Leviticus 25:35–37 expand it; the prophets invoke it (Ezek 18:8, 13, 17; 22:12; Neh 5:7, 10–11).
The LXX's adelphos ('brother') for Hebrew ammi ('my people') is a narrower category — the interest-prohibition applies to one's fellow Israelite, not to all. Deuteronomy 23:20 explicitly permits charging interest to foreigners.
Medieval Christian usury prohibitions grew from this LXX-Exodus 22:24 text. Luke 6:35 ('lend, expecting nothing in return') radicalizes it: the NT extends the no-interest ethic beyond kin to enemies.
If you take your neighbor's garment as collateral, you must return it to him before the sun sets.
The garment-as-collateral / return-before-sunset provision tracks MT. Deuteronomy 24:12–13 expands it. The ethic of not depriving a debtor of basic dignity underlies biblical social-justice theology.
For it is his only covering — it is his garment for his skin. What else would he sleep in? And when he cries out to me, I will hear, because I am compassionate.
The pathos of the poor man's single garment and the divine hearing-of-his-cry tracks MT. The anthropopathic 'I am compassionate' (eleēmōn gar eimi) attaches divine compassion to divine law — the ethical heart of biblical theology.
You must not curse God, and you must not curse a leader among your people.
Masoretic (WLC)
אֱלֹהִים לֹא תְקַלֵּל וְנָשִׂיא בְעַמְּךָ לֹא תָאֹר
You must not curse God, and you must not curse a leader among your people
Septuagint (LXX)
θεοὺς οὐ κακολογήσεις καὶ ἄρχοντας τοῦ λαοῦ σου οὐ κακῶς ἐρεῖς
You shall not speak ill of gods, and you shall not speak evil of rulers of your people
A notable LXX interpretive shift: Hebrew Elohim is ambiguous between 'God' (singular) and 'gods/judges' (plural). The LXX reads it as plural — 'you shall not revile gods' — perhaps read as 'judges, divinely-appointed magistrates.'
Acts 23:5 — Paul after insulting the high priest — cites this verse: "it is written, 'you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.'" Paul uses the LXX's archontas wording exactly.
The LXX's 'gods' reading — however understood — was theologically inconvenient for strict monotheists. Later Jewish readings rendered elohim here as 'judges.' The LXX's literal preservation of the ambiguity allowed the 'judges-as-elohim' tradition to develop.
You must not hold back your harvest fullness or your flowing produce. The firstborn of your sons you must give to me.
The firstfruits-and-firstborn offering provision tracks MT. 'The firstborn of your sons you must give to me' explicitly assumes the 13:13 redemption provision — the firstborn are 'given' only through ransom.
Do the same with your cattle and your flock: for seven days the young animal stays with its mother; on the eighth day you give it to me.
The seven-days-with-mother / eighth-day-offering animal-offering timeline tracks MT. The eighth-day motif is the same as circumcision-day in Genesis 17:12.
You are to be people set apart as holy to me. You must not eat the flesh of an animal torn by predators in the field — throw it to the dogs.
The 'holy people' identity and the ban on eating animal-corpses-torn-by-predators tracks MT. The verse closes the chapter with the programmatic identity-ethic: Israel's holiness determines Israel's conduct. 1 Peter 1:15–16 ('as he who called you is holy, you also be holy') and Lev 11:44 / 19:2 ('you shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy') all work from this Exodus-22:30 identity-formula.