Matthew Poole and continuators on Exodus 22:1

1 IF a man shall steal an oxe, or a sheep , and kill it, or sell it , he shall restore five oxen for an oxe, and four sheep for a sheep .

Or, an ass, which is added ver. 4. and consequently any other living creature, to be valued according to its worth and use to man, proportionably to the rule here laid down. Onely these are instanced in, for their usefulness in the service both of God and of men.

Which was an aggravation of the crime, and a token of greater boldness, resolvedness, and expertness in the trade of thieving, than was in him who kept it at home, ver. 4.

Quest. 1. Why so much, seeing the stealer of other things was tyed to restore but double? Ans. 1. For terrour, because these beasts being kept in the fields might more easily be stoln. 2. Because the loss of these was greater than of other things: for they did not onely lose what the cattle might be sold for, but all the service, increase, and other benefits, which a man might receive from them. Quest. 2. Why more for oxen, than for sheep? Ans. 1. Because it argued greater boldness and customariness in the thief to steal that which might more easily be discovered. 2. Because besides the intrinsecal worth of the oxe, the labour of the oxe was very considerable to his owner, Prov. 14. 4. and therefore the loss greater.

Marginal references: Or, goat.; 2 Sam. 12. 6. Luk. 19. 8. See Prov. 6. 31.