Exodus 22:15

Summary

The verse gives two conditional rulings about liability for a borrowed animal: if the animal's owner was present when it was used, the borrower owes no restitution; if the animal was hired rather than borrowed, a different outcome follows tied to the payment already made for its use.

Key words

• 'im ("if", H0518A) — a conditional particle opening each of the two clauses; the verse is structured as two parallel "if... then" statements.
• be'alav ("owner", H1167G) — masculine plural construct with a 3rd-person singular suffix ("his"). The plural form of ba'al is used idiomatically for a single owner; literally "owners-of-his," but functioning as "its owner."
• yeshallem ("he will repay", H7999A) — piel (intensive) imperfect, denoting an obligation of restitution projected into the future; the piel stem here carries the sense of "make full payment/restitution," not merely "pay."
• sakhir ("hired", H7916) — masculine singular adjective describing the animal's legal status (rented rather than borrowed), setting up the second conditional.
• ba ("it/he came", H0935G) — qal perfect, a completed action. The subject is ambiguous in form (masculine singular), and could grammatically refer to the animal, the transaction, or the hired party.

What the text says

The verse divides into two mirrored conditional clauses, each introduced by 'im ("if", H0518A). The first clause states that if the be'alav ("owner", H1167G) — grammatically plural but functioning as a singular possessive noun — was "with it" (the animal in question from the preceding context), then the borrower "will not repay" (lo yeshallem, H7999A), using the piel imperfect to express a negated future obligation of restitution.

The second clause shifts the condition: if the animal "was hired" (sakhir, H7916, an adjective marking rental status rather than a loan), then the qal perfect verb ba ("it came", H0935G) applies "in its hire" (bisekharo, from H7939, "hire/wage," construct with suffix). The Hebrew clause is terse — subject and precise sense of ba are not spelled out beyond "it/he came in/for its hire" — leaving the exact mechanism (who or what "came," and how the hire fee relates to the loss) grammatically underdetermined in the source text itself.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew ba bisekharo ("it came in its hire") is rendered variously: the LXX has "it will be to him instead of his wage" (ἔσται αὐτῷ ἀντὶ τοῦ μισθοῦ αὐτοῦ), the Vulgate reads "he had come hired for the wage of his work" (conductum venerat pro mercede operis sui), while the modern translations BSB and SBLIBRE render it as "the fee/rental cost covers the loss," an interpretive expansion beyond the terse Hebrew wording of coming "in/for" the hire.