Commentary - Exodus 22:6

Bird's-eye view

Exodus 22:6 is a piece of case law situated within the Book of the Covenant, that larger section of legal material given to Moses at Sinai. These are not abstract legal theories; they are concrete examples intended to teach Israel's judges how to apply God's perfect standard of justice to the messy realities of life. This particular law deals with property damage caused by negligence. It establishes the principle that a man is responsible not only for his intentional acts but also for the foreseeable consequences of his carelessness. The law requires full restitution, making the injured party whole. This is not about punitive damages but about restorative justice. The underlying principle is that love for neighbor, the summary of the second table of the law, extends to a diligent and sober-minded care for his property and livelihood. This is practical godliness, worked out in the ordinary affairs of an agrarian society, and it provides a timeless standard of responsibility for God's people in every age.

In the grand scheme of Exodus, these laws demonstrate what a redeemed community looks like. Having been graciously delivered from bondage in Egypt, Israel is now being taught how to live as a free people under God. This freedom is not anarchic license but rather a structured liberty, defined by God's righteous character. A law like this one, concerning a runaway fire, is a tangible expression of what it means to be a holy nation. It means you don't get to be reckless with what God has entrusted to your neighbor. The gospel echoes this principle: having been redeemed by Christ, we are called to a life of love, and that love is not a sentimental feeling but a practical, diligent concern for the well-being of others.

Outline

Context In Exodus

This verse is part of the "Book of the Covenant" (Exodus 20:22–23:33), which immediately follows the Ten Commandments. After God lays down the foundational principles of His law in the Decalogue, He provides Moses with a series of specific applications, or case laws. These are not meant to be an exhaustive legal code covering every possible contingency. Rather, they are paradigm cases, designed to establish principles of justice that wise judges could then apply to other, analogous situations. This is what we call casuistic law. The immediate context of chapter 22 deals with laws of restitution for various kinds of property loss or damage, including theft (22:1-4) and damage caused by grazing animals (22:5). Verse 6 fits squarely within this theme, extending the principle of responsibility from the actions of one's animals to the consequences of one's own careless actions, in this case, with fire.

Key Issues

Justice in the Grain Fields

When God gives law, He is not being arbitrary. He is revealing His own character, which is the ultimate standard of justice. And because He made us in His image, these laws resonate with our created sense of right and wrong, even though our sin has marbled and distorted it. A law like this one is intensely practical. It is theology with dirt under its fingernails. In an agricultural society, a man's grain was his life. It was his food for the winter, the seed for the next planting, the fruit of his labor, and God's provision for his family. To have it consumed by another man's fire was a catastrophe. God's law here is not interested in excuses or intentions. It is interested in justice. The damage was done, and the man who caused it must make it right. This is the foundation of a stable and prosperous society: a shared understanding that we are responsible for the consequences of our actions, and that when we harm our neighbor, we have a positive duty to restore what he has lost. This is not just a legal principle; it is a moral one, rooted in the command to love your neighbor as yourself.

Verse by Verse Commentary

6 “If a fire breaks out and spreads to thorn bushes, so that stacked grain or the standing grain or the field itself is consumed, he who started the fire shall surely make restitution.

Let's walk through this clause by clause, because that is how God's law works, with careful precision.

“If a fire breaks out and spreads to thorn bushes...” The scenario begins with a common agricultural practice: burning off thorns or clearing a field. Fire is a useful tool, but it is also an inherently dangerous one. The law assumes a legitimate activity that goes wrong. The fire "breaks out," suggesting it has escaped its intended boundaries. The mention of "thorn bushes" is significant. This is likely the initial fuel that allows the fire to get out of control. A man starts a small, manageable fire to clear some nuisance brush, but he is not careful enough. He misjudges the wind, or fails to create an adequate firebreak. This is the essence of negligence. It is not necessarily malicious intent; it is a failure of due diligence. He should have known the risks and taken appropriate precautions.

“so that stacked grain or the standing grain or the field itself is consumed...” The law then specifies the nature of the damage. The fire spreads from the worthless thorns to the valuable property of a neighbor. It destroys the harvested grain, already stacked and ready for threshing. It destroys the grain still standing in the field, representing future provision. Or it consumes the field itself, which could mean it scorches the soil and destroys pastureland. The law covers the full range of potential agricultural loss. The point is that a real, tangible harm has been done. A man's wealth, his livelihood, has been destroyed because of another's carelessness.

“he who started the fire shall surely make restitution.” Here is the verdict. The language is emphatic: "shall surely make restitution." The liability is clear and absolute. The law does not ask about the man's intent. It doesn't ask if he meant for the fire to spread. His good intentions are irrelevant to the fact that his neighbor's grain is now a pile of ash. The one who lit the match is responsible for the full extent of the blaze. Restitution means making the wronged party whole. He must pay for the value of the lost grain and the damaged field. The goal is to restore the neighbor to the economic position he was in before the fire. This is not punishment in the sense of a fine paid to the state; it is justice rendered directly to the victim. The principle is simple: your liberty to swing your arm ends where my nose begins. Your liberty to set a fire on your property ends where my grain field begins.

Application

So what does a law about runaway fires in ancient Israel have to do with us? Everything. This is a case law, which means we are to extract the principle, the general equity, and apply it to our own lives. The principle is that of personal responsibility for our negligence.

This applies in the most literal ways. If your poorly maintained tree falls on your neighbor's fence, you are responsible. If you are texting while driving and cause an accident, you are responsible for the damage. This is common sense, but it is a common sense that is grounded in the character of God. Biblical justice requires us to take responsibility for the foreseeable consequences of our carelessness.

But the principle goes deeper. How often are our careless words like a spark that starts a fire? James tells us the tongue is a fire, a world of evil (James 3:6). A piece of gossip, an uncharitable comment, a careless accusation, these things can "break out" and consume a person's reputation, a family's peace, or a church's unity. And when we are confronted, our natural tendency is to be like the man who started the fire: "I didn't mean for it to get out of control. I was just clearing some thorns." But God's law says the one who started the fire must make restitution. This means we have a positive obligation to go and make it right. It requires humility, confession, and doing whatever it takes to restore what our carelessness has damaged.

Ultimately, this law points us to the gospel. We are all guilty of a far greater negligence. We have been careless with the law of God and have caused infinite damage to His glory. The fire of our sin has broken out, and we have no ability to make restitution for the harm we have done. But Jesus Christ, the one who was never careless, stood in our place. On the cross, He absorbed the full, consuming fire of God's just wrath against our sin. He made the ultimate restitution, paying a debt He did not owe. And because He has done this, we who are in Him are now called to live as a people of restitution, a people who take responsibility, who clean up our messes, and who diligently love our neighbors, not just in word, but in deed and in truth.