Discovery BoxExodus 22:1 
Context22:1 1 (21:37) 2 “If a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he must pay back 3 five head of cattle for the ox, and four sheep for the one sheep. 4
Exodus 27:1
Context27:1 “You are to make the 5 altar of acacia wood, seven feet six inches long, 6 and seven feet six inches wide; the altar is to be square, 7 and its height is to be 8 four feet six inches.
Exodus 38:1
Context38:1 He made the altar for the burnt offering of acacia wood seven feet six inches long and seven feet six inches wide – it was square – and its height was four feet six inches.
1 sn The next section of laws concerns property rights. These laws protected property from thieves and oppressors, but also set limits to retribution. The message could be: God’s laws demand that the guilty make restitution for their crimes against property and that the innocent be exonerated.
2 sn Beginning with 22:1, the verse numbers through 22:31 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 22:1 ET = 21:37 HT, 22:2 ET = 22:1 HT, etc., through 22:31 ET = 22:30 HT. Thus in the English Bible ch. 22 has 31 verses, while in the Hebrew Bible it has 30 verses, with the one extra verse attached to ch. 21 in the Hebrew Bible.
3 tn The imperfect tense here has the nuance of obligatory imperfect – he must pay back.
4 tn בָּקַר (baqar) and צֹאן (tso’n) are the categories to which the ox and the sheep belonged, so that the criminal had some latitude in paying back animals.
5 tn The article on this word identifies this as the altar, meaning the main high altar on which the sacrifices would be made.
6 tn The dimensions are five cubits by five cubits by three cubits high.
7 tn Heb “four”; this refers to four sides. S. R. Driver says this is an archaism that means there were four equal sides (Exodus, 291).
8 tn Heb “and three cubits its height.”
