Exodus 22:5
Hebrew Bible
4 If the stolen item should in fact be found alive in his possession, whether it be an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he must pay back double. 5 “If a man grazes his livestock in a field or a vineyard and he lets the livestock loose and they graze in the field of another man, he must make restitution from the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard. 6 “If a fire breaks out and spreads to thorn bushes, so that stacked grain or standing grain or the whole field is consumed, the one who started the fire must surely make restitution.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Neofiti Exodus 22:4
Targum
3 If the stolen (thing) is found alive in his hand,e whether it is an ox or an ass or a lamb, he shall pay double. 4 If a man sets fire to a field or a vineyard and leaves the fire to spread, and (thus) causes fire in the field of another, he shall give in restitution the best of his field and the best of (his) vineyard. 5 When fire breaks out and catches thorns and consumes the stacked grain or the standing grain on the field, whoever caused the fire shall make full restitution.
Date: 300-1000 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Notes and References
"... Sometimes these translation choices betray an understanding of halakah that seems to be at variance with the tradition. One famous example occurs in Exodus 22:4 (English 5) ... The rendering of Onkelos is in line with what seems to be the literal sense of the verse, that the root refers to destruction of crops by grazing. Neofiti follows a different tack and translates in accordance with a homonymous root meaning “to burn.” But by doing this, Neofiti seems to reduce the four “fathers of damages” — “the ox and the pit and the crop-destroying beast and the outbreak of fire” (Mishnah Bava Kamma 1:1) — to three, eliminating the scriptural basis for the crop-destroying beast. Since this is clearly counter to the Mishnah, some have claimed that Neofiti’s interpretation comes from a time before the mishnaic tradition was fully accepted ..."
Cook, Edward M.
"The Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in the Targums" in Henze, Matthias (ed.) A Companion to Biblical Interpretation in Early Judaism
(pp. 92-117) William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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