Exodus 21:34

The owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them; and the dead beast shall be his.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(34) The dead beast shall be his.—Having paid the full value of the live animal, the owner of the well was entitled to make what he could by the carcass.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

21:22-36 The cases here mentioned give rules of justice then, and still in use, for deciding similar matters. We are taught by these laws, that we must be very careful to do no wrong, either directly or indirectly. If we have done wrong, we must be very willing to make it good, and be desirous that nobody may lose by us.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The usual mode of protecting a well in the East was probably then, as now, by building round it a low circular wall.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

30. If there be laid on him a sum of money, &c.—Blood fines are common among the Arabs as they were once general throughout the East. This is the only case where a money compensation, instead of capital punishment, was expressly allowed in the Mosaic law.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The owner of the pit, i.e. he by whose hand or command it was made,

shall give money equal to the worth of the dead beast, in the opinion of the judge.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The owner of the pit shall make it good,.... Repair the loss of the ox or ass:

and give the money unto the owner of them: the price of them, what they are worth: the Targum of Jonathan is,"the owner of the pit shall pay the silver, he shall return to its owner the price of the ox or ass:"

and the dead beast shall be his; either the owner of the pit; who pays the full value for the ox or ass killed, which seems but reasonable; or"the injured person as Jarchi, for he says, they reckon or estimate the carcass, and he takes it for the price;''that is, for part of the price it is valued at.

Geneva Study Bible

The owner of the pit shall {y} make it good, and give money unto the owner of them; and the dead beast shall be his.

(y) This law forbids not only to hurt, but to beware lest any be hurt.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

34. Having paid the value of the dead animal to the owner, he is naturally at liberty to keep the carcase himself. The carcase would be of value for its hide: but though ‘that which died of itself’ was forbidden later as food (Deuteronomy 14:21; cf. Leviticus 17:15 f. P), this may not have been the case at the time when the present code of laws was drawn up.

money] i.e. to the value of the beast; its money (= the price of it, v. 35: כספו for כסף) would be clearer, and should perhaps be restored.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 34. - The owner of the pit shall make it good - i.e., "shall duly compensate the owner of the cattle for its loss." And the dead beast shall be his. Having paid the full price of the slain beast, the owner of the cistern was entitled to its carcase. Exodus 21:34

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Passing from life to property, in connection with the foregoing, the life of the animal, the most important possession of the Israelites, is first of all secured against destruction through carelessness. If any one opened or dug a pit or cistern, and did not close it up again, and another man's ox or ass (mentioned, for the sake of example, as the most important animals among the live stock of the Israelites) fell in and was killed, the owner of the pit was to pay its full value, and the dead animal to belong to him. If an ox that was not known to be vicious gored another man's ox to death, the vicious animal was to be sold, and its money (what it fetched) to be divided; the dead animal was also to be divided, so that both parties bore an equal amount of damage. If, on the other hand, the ox had been known to be vicious before, and had not been kept in, carefully secured, by its possessor, he was to compensate the owner of the one that had been killed with the full value of an ox, but to receive the dead one instead.