If the owner was with it, literally “If [ʾim] its owner with it,” is clearer in Good News Translation: “But if that happens when the owner was present.” He shall not make restitution means “the man need not repay” (Good News Translation). New Jerusalem Bible has “he will not have to make good the loss.”

If it was hired is literally “if [ʾim] a hired that,” using a noun rather than a verb. So this can refer either to a hired man or to a hired animal. The context, however, clearly suggests that “it is a rented animal” (Good News Translation). It came for its hire is too literal to make sense, so New Revised Standard Version now has “only the hiring fee is due.” This means that the borrower need not pay anything more.

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 .