Keluaran 21:31-34

21:31 If the ox ¹  gores a son or a daughter, the owner ²  will be dealt with according to this rule. ³  21:32 If the ox gores a male servant or a female servant, the owner ⁴  must pay thirty shekels of silver, ⁵  and the ox must be stoned. ⁶ 

21:33 “If a man opens a pit or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, 21:34 the owner of the pit must repay ⁷  the loss. He must give money ⁸  to its owner, and the dead animal ⁹  will become his.

[21:31]  ¹ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the ox) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:31]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the owner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:31]  ³ tn Heb “according to this judgment it shall be done to him.”

[21:32]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the owner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:32]  ⁵ sn A shekel was a unit for measure by means of a scale. Both the weight and the value of a shekel of silver are hard to determine. “Though there is no certainty, the shekel is said to weigh about 11,5 grams” (C. Houtman, Exodus, 3:181). Over four hundred years earlier, Joseph was sold into Egypt for 20 shekels. The free Israelite citizen was worth about 50 shekels (Lev 27:3f.).

[21:32]  ⁶ sn See further B. S. Jackson, “The Goring Ox Again [Ex. 21,28-36],” JJP 18 (1974): 55-94.

[21:34]  ⁷ tn The verb is a Piel imperfect from שָׁלַם (shalam); it has the idea of making payment in full, making recompense, repaying. These imperfects could be given a future tense translation as imperfects of instruction, but in the property cases an obligatory imperfect fits better – this is what he is bound or obliged to do – what he must do.

[21:34]  ⁸ tn Heb “silver.”

[21:34]  ⁹ tn Here the term “animal” has been supplied.