double] Before it was five fold for an ox, foure for a sheep; here but double: the reason is, because if it be found presently with the thiefe, the propertie not altered, the owner sustained lesse damage and trouble, and the thiefe shewed himselfe not to be so artificiall in his falshood, nor so settled in it, as he that carrieth the stoln goods away, and either killeth, or selleth, or keepeth them a longer time from him that hath right unto them: but it is said, Proverbs 6:31. That a thiefe if he be found he shall restore seven fold: this may be meant of a thiefe breaking into an house in the night, who if he were taken in the act, and smitten to death, no bloud was to be shed for him, ver. 2. and having forfeited his life, he might pay the dearer for his ransome, then the rate of ordinary restitution; and so he might pay not onely sevenfold, but all the substance of his house, as it is in the same 31. verse: or there might be a larger restitution in Solomons time, because there was more plenty, 1 Kings 10:27. Or by sevenfold, may be meant manifold, as Genesis 4:15. Psalms 79:12. Isaiah 30:26.