Discovery BoxExodus 20:25 
Context20:25 If you make me an altar of stone, you must not build it 1 of stones shaped with tools, 2 for if you use your tool on it you have defiled it. 3
Exodus 21:3
Context21:3 If he came 4 in by himself 5 he will go out by himself; if he had 6 a wife when he came in, then his wife will go out with him.
Exodus 22:3
Context22:3 If the sun has risen on him, then there is blood guilt for him. A thief 7 must surely make full restitution; if he has nothing, then he will be sold for his theft.
Exodus 22:7
Context22:7 “If a man gives his neighbor money or articles 8 for safekeeping, 9 and it is stolen from the man’s house, if the thief is caught, 10 he must repay double.
1 tn Heb “them” referring to the stones.
2 tn Heb “of hewn stones.” Gesenius classifies this as an adverbial accusative – “you shall not build them (the stones of the altar) as hewn stones.” The remoter accusative is in apposition to the nearer (GKC 372 §117.kk).
3 tn The verb is a preterite with vav (ו) consecutive. It forms the apodosis in a conditional clause: “if you lift up your tool on it…you have defiled it.”
4 tn The tense is imperfect, but in the conditional clause it clearly refers to action that is anterior to the action in the next clause. Heb “if he comes in single, he goes out single,” that is, “if he came in single, he will go out single.”
5 tn Heb “with his back” meaning “alone.”
6 tn The phrase says, “if he was the possessor of a wife”; the noun בַּעַל (ba’al) can mean “possessor” or “husband.” If there was a wife, she shared his fortunes or his servitude; if he entered with her, she would accompany him when he left.
7 tn The words “a thief” have been added for clarification. S. R. Driver (Exodus, 224) thinks that these lines are out of order, since some of them deal with killing the thief and then others with the thief making restitution, but rearranging the clauses is not a necessary way to bring clarity to the paragraph. The idea here would be that any thief caught alive would pay restitution.
8 tn The word usually means “vessels” but can have the sense of household goods and articles. It could be anything from jewels and ornaments to weapons or pottery.
9 tn Heb “to keep.” Here “safekeeping,” that is, to keep something secure on behalf of a third party, is intended.
10 tn Heb “found.”
