If (ki) introduces a new law that continues through verse 13, but it deals with the same idea of entrusting one’s animals to another person. (New Revised Standard Version now has “when.”) If a man delivers to his neighbor is identical with verse 7. An ass or an ox refers to a “donkey” (Good News Translation) and a “bull” (Durham) or “cow” (Good News Translation). The word for sheep means either “a sheep or a goat” (Translator’s Old Testament). Any beast to keep means “any other animal for safekeeping” (New Revised Standard Version).

And it dies or is hurt implies that this happens while the animal is being kept by the neighbor. The word for hurt literally means “it is broken,” so New Jerusalem Bible has “or breaks a limb.” But the broader meaning of “injured” (Good News Translation) is probably intended. Or is driven away is literally “or is taken captive,” so Good News Translation has “is carried off in a raid.” However, in many languages a rendering such as “someone steals it while no one is looking” will be a more natural one. Without any one seeing it is literally “there is no seer.” One may say “with no witness about” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “while no one is looking” (New International Version). The sentence continues into the next verse.

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 .