“If the thief be not found, then the master of the house shall be brought unto the judges, to see whether he have put his hand unto his neighbour’s goods.”
But if the thief is not found, the owner of the house must appear before the judges, and they must determine whether the owner of the house has laid hands on the other person's property. When the thief cannot be found, the question becomes whether the custodian was complicit in the theft. The judges — the same judicial structure Jethro recommended — determine innocence or guilt. The legal process is transparent and accountable: neither side's claim is automatically accepted. Romans 13:1–4 grounds the legitimacy of governing authorities in God's own ordering of human society — the judges of Exodus 22:8 are early instantiations of the legitimate human authority that Paul describes.
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