Covenant Laws III: Property Rights, Capital Offenses, Using Power, Relationship to God: Exodus 22 deals with eleven casuistic laws of the book of the covenant. These case laws protected property in cases of theft or negligent damage and established civility between neighbors by setting limits of liability for another’s property. They continue through verse 17, after which the legal form changes to commandments (apodictic law). The commandments address three more capital offenses, limitation of the use of power with the vulnerable, and one’s relationship to God. The Lord established law and the rule of law through the courts and judges, building a just society under God’s rule (vv. 8–9, 11).

22:16–17 The final case (vv. 16–17) concerns a man who seduces a virgin (betulah). This law was attac…