Discovery BoxExodus 22:4 
Context22:4 If the stolen item should in fact be found 1 alive in his possession, 2 whether it be an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he must pay back double. 3
Exodus 22:7
Context22:7 “If a man gives his neighbor money or articles 4 for safekeeping, 5 and it is stolen from the man’s house, if the thief is caught, 6 he must repay double.
Exodus 22:9
Context22:9 In all cases of illegal possessions, 7 whether for an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any kind of lost item, about which someone says ‘This belongs to me,’ 8 the matter of the two of them will come before the judges, 9 and the one whom 10 the judges declare guilty 11 must repay double to his neighbor.
1 tn The construction uses a Niphal infinitive absolute and a Niphal imperfect: if it should indeed be found. Gesenius says that in such conditional clauses the infinitive absolute has less emphasis, but instead emphasizes the condition on which some consequence depends (see GKC 342-43 §113.o).
2 tn Heb “in his hand.”
3 sn He must pay back one for what he took, and then one for the penalty – his loss as he was inflicting a loss on someone else.
4 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.
5 tn Heb “to keep.” Here “safekeeping,” that is, to keep something secure on behalf of a third party, is intended.
6 tn Heb “found.”
7 tn Heb “concerning every kind [thing] of trespass.”
8 tn The text simply has “this is it” (הוּא זֶה, hu’ zeh).
9 tn Again, or “God.”
10 tn This kind of clause Gesenius calls an independent relative clause – it does not depend on a governing substantive but itself expresses a substantival idea (GKC 445-46 §138.e).
11 tn The verb means “to be guilty” in Qal; in Hiphil it would have a declarative sense, because a causative sense would not possibly fit.
