Texts in Conversation
Exodus 22 contains a single commandment about animals damaging crops, the same for fields and vineyards. The Greek Septuagint splits it into two commandments and omits the reference to vineyards, possibly to harmonize the passage with other commandments.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
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: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Exodus 22:4
Septuagint
3 And if he is caught and the thing stolen is found in his hand alive, whether donkey or sheep, he shall restore them twofold. 4 And if any one should feed down a field or a vineyard, and should send in his beast to feed down another field, he shall make compensation of his own field according to his produce; and if he shall have fed down the whole field, he shall pay for compensation the best of his own field and the best of his vineyard. 5 And if fire has gone forth and caught thorns, and should also set on fire threshing-floors or ears of grain or a field, he that kindled the fire shall make compensation.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The second difficulty for the verse is the textual plus of the Samaritan and Septuagint in the middle of the verse. In this formulation, the verse has two distinct laws ... The plus is probably an addition to harmonize the stricter payment required in the Masoretic text verse 4b over against that in verse 5. Note also that in the Masoretic text as it stands, the (initial) protasis and apodosis have both “field” and “vineyard,” whereas the plus of the versions has only a “field” in its two members. This creates some inconsistency in the distribution of locales in the two laws of the Samaritan and Greek ..."
David P. Wright, Inventing God’s Law: How the Covenant Code of the Bible Used and Revised the Laws of Hammurabi (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 239.
* 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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