Bible Strands
Exodus 22:6
If a fire breaks out and spreads to thornbushes so that it consumes stacked or standing grain, or the whole field, the one who started the fire must make full restitution.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God delivers this statute to the Israelites through Moses, inserting it between laws on grazing livestock and safekeeping deposits to regulate civil liability.
The words — אֵ֜שׁ ('esh) means a fire, and קֹצִים֙ (ko.Tzim) denotes thornbushes, the dry vegetation that catches and rapidly spreads the flames.
The thread — This restitution principle parallels Exodus 21:33 on uncovered pits, Exodus 22:12 on stolen animals, and Exodus 22:9 on disputed property, establishing a consistent legal standard for accidental damage.
Why it lands — The text commands the person who started the fire to pay full financial compensation for any stacked or standing grain and fields consumed, regardless of whether the spread was intentional or accidental.
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
If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed therewith; he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.
Cross-references
- Exodus 22:9 In all cases of illegal possession of an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any lost item that someone claims, ‘This is mine,’ both parties shall bring their cases before the judges. The one whom the judges find guilty must pay back double to his neighbor.
- Exodus 21:33 If a man opens or digs a pit and fails to cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,
- Exodus 22:12 But if the animal was actually stolen from the neighbor, he must make restitution to the owner.
- Judges 15:4 Then Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. And he took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails.
- 2 Samuel 14:30 Then Absalom said to his servants, “Look, Joab’s field is next to mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire!” And Absalom’s servants set the field on fire.