Amsal 20:16

20:16 Take a man’s ¹  garment ²  when he has given security for a stranger, ³ 

and when he gives surety for strangers, ⁴  hold him ⁵  in pledge.

Keluaran 22:26-27

22:26 If you do take ⁶  the garment of your neighbor in pledge, you must return it to him by the time the sun goes down, ⁷  22:27 for it is his only covering – it is his garment for his body. ⁸  What else can he sleep in? ⁹  And ¹⁰  when he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am gracious.

Keluaran 22:2

22:2 “If a thief is caught ¹¹  breaking in ¹²  and is struck so that he dies, there will be no blood guilt for him. ¹³ 

Kisah Para Rasul 4:1

The Arrest and Trial of Peter and John

4:1 While Peter and John ¹⁴  were speaking to the people, the priests and the commander ¹⁵  of the temple guard ¹⁶  and the Sadducees ¹⁷  came up ¹⁸  to them,

[20:16]  ¹ tn Heb “his garment.”

[20:16]  ² sn Taking a garment was the way of holding someone responsible to pay debts. In fact, the garment was the article normally taken for security (Exod 22:24-26; Deut 24:10-13). Because this is a high risk security pledge (e.g., 6:1-5), the creditor is to deal more severely than when the pledge is given by the debtor for himself.

[20:16]  ³ tc The Kethib has the masculine plural form, נָכְרִים (nakhrim), suggesting a reading “strangers.” But the Qere has the feminine form נָכְרִיָּה (nakhriyyah), “strange woman” or “another man’s wife” (e.g., 27:13). The parallelism would suggest “strangers” is the correct reading, although theories have been put forward for the interpretation of “strange woman” (see below).

[20:16]  sn The one for whom the pledge is taken is called “a stranger” and “foreign.” These two words do not necessarily mean that the individual or individuals are non-Israelite – just outside the community and not well known.

[20:16]  ⁴ tn M. Dahood argues that the cloak was taken in pledge for a harlot (cf. NIV “a wayward woman”). Two sins would then be committed: taking a cloak and going to a prostitute (“To Pawn One’s Cloak,” Bib 42 [1961]: 359-66; also Snijders, “The Meaning of זָר,” 85-86). In the MT the almost identical proverb in 27:13 has a feminine singular form here.

[20:16]  ⁵ tn Or “hold it” (so NIV, NCV).

[22:26]  ⁶ tn The construction again uses the infinitive absolute with the verb in the conditional clause to stress the condition.

[22:26]  ⁷ tn The clause uses the preposition, the infinitive construct, and the noun that is the subjective genitive – “at the going in of the sun.”

[22:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “his skin.”

[22:27]  ⁹ tn Literally the text reads, “In what can he lie down?” The cloak would be used for a covering at night to use when sleeping. The garment, then, was the property that could not be taken and not given back – it was the last possession. The modern idiom of “the shirt off his back” gets at the point being made here.

[22:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and it will be.”

[22:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “found” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

[22:2]  ¹² tn The word בַּמַּחְתֶּרֶת (bammakhteret) means “digging through” the walls of a house (usually made of mud bricks). The verb is used only a few times and has the meaning of dig in (as into houses) or row hard (as in Jonah 1:13).

[22:2]  ¹³ tn The text has “there is not to him bloods.” When the word “blood” is put in the plural, it refers to bloodshed, or the price of blood that is shed, i.e., blood guiltiness.

[22:2]  sn This law focuses on what is reasonable defense against burglary. If someone killed a thief who was breaking in during the night, he was not charged because he would not have known it was just a thief, but if it happened during the day, he was guilty of a crime, on the assumption that in daylight the thief posed no threat to the homeowner’s life and could be stopped and made to pay restitution.

[4:1]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “While they”; the referents (Peter and John) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:1]  ¹⁵ tn Or “captain.”

[4:1]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “the official of the temple,” a title for the commander of the Jewish soldiers guarding the temple (thus the translation, “the commander of the temple guard”). See L&N 37.91.

[4:1]  sn The commander of the temple guard was the title of the officer commanding the Jewish soldiers responsible for guarding and keeping order in the temple courts in Jerusalem.

[4:1]  ¹⁷ sn The Sadducees controlled the official political structures of Judaism at this time, being the majority members of the Sanhedrin. They were known as extremely strict on law and order issues (Josephus, J. W. 2.8.2 [2.119], 2.8.14 [2.164-166]; Ant. 13.5.9 [13.171-173], 13.10.6 [13.293-298], 18.1.2 [18.11], 18.1.4 [18.16-17], 20.9.1 [20.199]; Life 2 [10-11]). See also Matt 3:7; 16:1-12; 22:23-34; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-38; Acts 5:17; 23:6-8.

[4:1]  ¹⁸ tn Or “approached.” This verb often denotes a sudden appearing (BDAG 418 s.v. ἐφίστημι 1).