Hebrew word · H1591
גְּנֵבָה
bignevato
theft
A noun from ganab, 'steal' (secretly carry off). It occurs only in Exod 22:3 and 22:4 (English numbering). It can name the act ('sold for his theft', 22:3) or the stolen property (here, where it is 'found' and 'alive').
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
thing stolen, theft
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
A noun from ganab, 'steal' (secretly carry off). It occurs only in Exod 22:3 and 22:4 (English numbering). It can name the act ('sold for his theft', 22:3) or the stolen property (here, where it is 'found' and 'alive').
- Against the English
KJV/YLT 'the theft be found… alive' uses 'theft' in an older sense meaning the stolen goods. Modern English uses 'theft' only for the act. BSB 'what was stolen', ESV 'the stolen beast', NIV 'the stolen animal' make the meaning clear.
- How it drifted
Into Early Modern English, 'theft' could mean the thing stolen, and the KJV uses it that way. That sense is now obsolete, so the KJV wording sounds odd ('a theft found alive').
- Used elsewhere in the period
Ganab-language links this law to the eighth commandment (Exod 20:15) and to the case laws on stealing people (21:16) and animals (22:1). Its basic idea is taking by stealth, which is why the night/day break-in ruling (22:2–3) stands next to it.
Where it appears
Exodus · 2
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Exodus 22:3 בִּגְנֵבָתֽוֹ׃ for theft his
But if it happens after sunrise, there is guilt for his bloodshed. A thief must make full restitution; if he has nothing, he himself shall be sold for his theft.
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Exodus 22:4 הַגְּנֵבָ֗ה the thing stolen
If what was stolen is actually found alive in his possession—whether ox or donkey or sheep—he must pay back double.
Here: The grammatical subject: not the act of theft but the property taken. It occurs only here and in 22:3 ('sold for his theft'), where it means the act or what was taken.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.