Alive; not killed, nor sold, as Exodus 22:1. Double; not more,
1. Because in that case it was presumed, either that he intended to restore it, or at least that he was but raw and unexercised in the trade of stealing, and so should be more gently punished.
2. Because the right owner recovered his goods with less charge and trouble. Or,
3. Because it was but a single crime, whereas the other, Exodus 22:1, was an aggravated and complicated crime, where one sin and injury was added to another. Object. It is said, he shall restore sevenfold, Proverbs 6:31. Answ. 1. Sevenfold is put for abundantly, as that word is oft used, as Genesis 4:24 Psalms 12:6, Psalms 79:12; and a learned man observes, it is never used for that definite number. Answ.
2. This sevenfold, or seven times, may relate not to the proportion of his restitution, but to the number of his thefts, or rather of his detections; and the sense is this, Though he be found guilty of theft seven times, all his punishment is, that he shall restore as the law prescribes. Whereas adultery, of which he there speaks in the following verses, is a crime of that nature, that if a man be once found guilty of it, restitution cannot be made, nor will it serve his turn, but he falls into all the mischiefs there reckoned up.