If is the word ki, which Revised Standard Version usually translates “When,” and this is what New Revised Standard Version now has. (See the discussion at 21.2). If a man steals an ox or a sheep uses the same word for steals as in the Ten Commandments (20.15). The word for ox is the same as in 21.28 (see the comment there). “Cow” usually refers to the female, but Good News Translation uses it here in a general sense for both male and female. The word for sheep is really the word for the small “flock-animal” (Durham), which may be either “a sheep or a goat” (Translator’s Old Testament).

And kills it translates the word for “slaughter” (New Revised Standard Version) or “butcher” (Durham). This implies that the man kills it either for food or for sacrifice. Or sells it suggests that it would not be possible to return the animal to its rightful owner after it is sold.

He shall pay five oxen for an ox refers to the man who has stolen the animal. The Hebrew word translated here as oxen (baqar) is an even more inclusive term than the word for ox (shor). (See the comment on shor at 21.28.) Good News Translation here renders both terms as “cow,” but New International Version makes a distinction: “He must pay back five head of cattle for the ox.” The word for pay means to make amends, to “repay” (Revised English Bible), or “pay back” (New Jerusalem Bible). Four sheep also uses a different word from the earlier word for a sheep, but they both refer to either a sheep or a goat. We may restructure the verse as follows:

• If a person steals an ox and slaughters or sells it, he must replace it with five oxen; if he steals a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he must replace it with four sheep.

He shall make restitution is really the second half of verse 3 in the Hebrew text. (See the Revised Standard Version footnote.) Verse 4 is also placed before verse 2, since these verses still deal with the law in verse 1. This rearrangement is followed by New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, and others, because verses 2 and 3 deal with a different law before completing the discussion of the first law. Therefore the sequence of verses that is followed is: 1, 3b-4, 2-3a, 5. New International Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New American Bible, and New Jerusalem Bible all follow the Hebrew text, but the rearrangement given above is preferable, and translators are urged to follow it. Note that Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version simply mark the verse numbers as “2-4” and avoid the need for a footnote. With this rearrangement, therefore, the pronoun he clearly refers as it should to the thief in verse 1.

He shall make restitution, literally “repaying he shall repay,” uses the same emphatic form as in 21.12 (“dying he shall die”). This may be expressed as “He must make restitution” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), “He must make full restitution” (New American Bible), or “He is certainly to give compensation” (Durham).

If he has nothing is literally “if [ʾim] there is nothing to him.” New Revised Standard Version has changed this to “but if unable to do so,” meaning that the thief in verse 1 is unable to repay five animals for the one stolen. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “if he lacks the means,” and Translator’s Old Testament has “If he cannot pay.” Then he shall be sold for his theft is literally “and he will be sold in his theft.” It means that the man will be “sold as a slave” (Good News Translation), “sold into slavery” (Translator’s Old Testament), or even “they will sell him as a slave” in order “to pay for what he has stolen” (Good News Translation). We may combine the first two clauses and translate “But if he cannot afford to replace the animals, he must be sold as a slave to pay for what he has stolen.” (See the comment on “slave” at 21.2.)

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .