Matthew Poole and continuators on Exodus 22:4

4 If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive , whether it be oxe, or ass, or sheep, he shall restore double .

Not killed, nor sold, as ver. 1.

Not more, 1. because in that case it was presumed, either that he intended to restore it, or at lest that he was but raw and unexercised in the trade of stealing, and so should be more gently punished: 2. because the right owner recovered his goods with less charge and trouble. or 3. because it was but a single crime, whereas the other ver. 1. was an aggravated and complicated crime, where one sin and injury was added to another. Obj. It is said, he shall restore seven-sold▪ Prov. 6. 31. Ans. 1. Seven-sold is put for abundantly, as that word is oft used as Gen. 4. 24. Ps. 12. 6 & 79. 12. and a learned man observes it is never used for that definite number. Ans. 2. This seven-sold or seven-times may relate not to the proportion of his restitution, but to the number of his Thefts, or rather of his detections, and the sence is this, Though he be found guilty of theft seven times, all his punishment is, that he shall restore, as the law prescribes. Whereas adultery, of which he there speaks in the following verses, is a crime of that nature, that if a man be once found guilty of it, restitution cannot be made nor will it serve his turn, but he falls into all the mischiefs there reckoned up.