Deuteronomy 22:3
Thou shalt do in like manner with his ass, and with his raiment, and with every thing that is thy brother's, which is lost: if thou find it, neglect it not as pertaining to another.
Open Deuteronomy 22:3 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Similiter facies de asino, et de vestimento, et de omni re fratris tui, quæ perierit : si inveneris eam, ne negligas quasi alienam.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- οὕτως ποιήσεις τὸν ὄνον αὐτοῦ, καὶ οὕτως ποιήσεις κατὰ πᾶσαν ἀπωλίαν τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου· ὅσα ἐὰν ἀπόληται παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ καὶ εὕρῃς, οὐ δυνήσῃ ὑπεριδεῖν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְכֵ֧ן תַּעֲשֶׂ֣ה לַחֲמֹר֗וֹ וְכֵ֣ן תַּעֲשֶׂה֮ לְשִׂמְלָתוֹ֒ וְכֵ֣ן תַּעֲשֶׂ֜ה לְכָל אֲבֵדַ֥ת אָחִ֛יךָ אֲשֶׁר תֹּאבַ֥ד מִמֶּ֖נּוּ וּמְצָאתָ֑הּ לֹ֥א תוּכַ֖ל לְהִתְעַלֵּֽם
Haydock's commentary
If, &c. Hebrew, "thou must not hide thyself," so as to pass it by, nor yet conceal it from the right owner. When a thing is certainly abandoned by him, it belongs to the person who seizes it first; but if it be only lost, it must surely be restored, if possible, (Grotius, Jur. ii. 10,) as nature forbids us to take advantage of another's misfortune. (Cicero)
The Rabbins have corrupted this law, like so many others, by their evil interpretations. They pretend that a Jew must restore what he has found belonging to another true believer, if it have certain marks by which it may be known, but not if it belonged to a prevaricator or infidel. In the former supposition, they got the thing cried on a high stone near Jerusalem four times, and if the owner did not then claim his property, the finder might keep it. (Selden, Jur. vi. 4.)
The inhabitants of Cumæ condemned the next neighbour to restore what had been lost; as Hesiod (op. 348,) very well remarks, that things would not easily be lost, if the neighbours were not ill-disposed.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Gregory Thaumaturgus Canonical Epistle, Canon IV
Let no one deceive himself, nor put forward the pretext of having found such property. For it is not lawful, even for a man who has found anything, to aggrandize himself by it. For Deuteronomy says: “Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray in the way, and pay no heed to them; but thou shalt in any wise bring them again unto thy brother. And if thy brother come not nigh thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring them together, and they shall be with thee until thy brother seek after them, and thou shalt restore them to him again. And in like manner shalt thou do with his ass, and so shalt thou do with his raiment, and so shalt thou do with all lost things of thy brother’s, which he hath lost, and thou mayest find.” Thus much in Deuteronomy. …