33If a man opens or digs a pit and fails to cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, 34the owner of the pit shall make restitution; he must pay its owner, and the dead animal will be his.
35If a man’s ox injures his neighbor’s ox and it dies, they must sell the live one and divide the proceeds; they also must divide the dead animal. 36But if it was known that the ox had a habit of goring, yet its owner failed to restrain it, he shall pay full compensation, ox for ox, and the dead animal will be his.”
“More likely for grain storage than water storage. Pits were also used as traps for animals (2 Samuel 23:20) or prisons for men (Genesis 37:24).” (Cole)
“To a struggling Israelite farmer, fair payment for the death of an ox might mean the difference between life and death, or at least between freedom and slavery for debt.” (Cole)
Responsibility for the consequences of an individual’s actions against another.
Today we use insurance as a means of restitution to another. But there are some who don’t purchase insurance and drive without it.
I have a friend that spent six months restoring a pickup truck. He was sitting at a stop sign and someone rear ended him doing an estimated speed of 55 mph and totaled his truck. The person didn’t have insurance and he didn’t carry collision, so he lost the value he invested not including his labor.
I wonder under these laws in this scripture, how this consequence would be handled?
Blessings, David
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