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Deuteronomy 22 · a question people ask

Deuteronomy says "your brother's ox". Could Israel ignore an outsider's or an enemy's lost animal?

In the text

Not by the Law as a whole. Exodus had already given the law for an enemy: "If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again" (Exodus 23:4), and for "the donkey of him who hates you" (Exodus 23:5). Deuteronomy 22 gives the same law for "your brother" (22:1), including the brother you have never met: "if you don’t know him" (22:2). Deuteronomy doesn't say why it names the brother here, and it doesn't take back what Exodus said; both stand in the Law. Deuteronomy also told Israel, "love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt" (10:19).

The verses

““If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. If you see the donkey of him who hates you fallen down under his burden, don’t leave him. You shall surely help him with it.”
Exodus 23:4-5 · World English Bible
“You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep go astray and hide yourself from them. You shall surely bring them again to your brother. If your brother isn’t near to you, or if you don’t know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother comes looking for it, and you shall restore it to him.”
Deuteronomy 22:1-2 · World English Bible
“Therefore love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.”
Deuteronomy 10:19 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Deuteronomy 22

Deuteronomy 22: You may not hide yourself

Three times in four verses the law says you may not "hide yourself" from a brother's stray animal, lost thing or fallen donkey (22:1-4), as Exodus had said of an enemy's (Exodus 23:4-5); and letting a mother bird go carries the two promises of "Honor your father and your mother" (22:7; 5:16).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions