“When a man steals an ox or a sheep and butchers it or sells it, he must repay five cattle for the ox or four sheep for the sheep. If a thief is caught in the act of breaking in, and he is beaten to death, no one is guilty of bloodshed. But if this happens after sunrise, the householder is guilty of bloodshed. A thief must make full restitution. If he is unable, he is to be sold because of his theft. If what was stolen – whether ox, donkey, or sheep – is actually found alive in his possession, he must repay double.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
Getting justice right is hard. On the one hand, the person who has committed a crime should face some kind of consequence for whatever it is. But the consequence needs to be proportional to the crime itself. A punishment too severe relative to the crime becomes an injustice in and of itself. The trouble here is that when a crime has happened to us, we aren’t much interested in an appropriately proportional response. We want vengeance. A significant part of the Law of Moses involved setting out just penalties for various crimes. Let’s take a look at an example of that here.
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The Nexus 