Bible Strands
Exodus 22:15
If the owner was present, no restitution is required. If the animal was rented, the fee covers the loss.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses records this liability rule for Israel following the Sinai covenant, addressing cases involving borrowed or rented livestock.
The words — The text hinges on שָׂכִיר (sa.Khir) = hired and בְּעָלָיִו (be.'a.La/v) = owner, framing the conditional clauses that determine financial responsibility.
The thread — Zech 8:10 describes a past period where neither man nor beast received wages and safety from enemies was absent for travelers.
Why it lands — The text states that liability vanishes when the owner is present or when a rental fee covers the loss, requiring the reader to apply precise, circumstance-bound accountability to daily transactions.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
But if the owner thereof be with it, he shall not make it good: if it be an hired thing, it came for his hire.
Cross-references
- Zechariah 8:10 For before those days neither man nor beast received wages, nor was there safety from the enemy for anyone who came or went, for I had turned every man against his neighbor.