Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 22:5

"If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall let his beast loose, and it feed in another man`s field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution." — Exodus 22:5 (ASV)

If a man shall cause a field ... to be eaten. — Following theft, trespass is discussed as another injury to property. Only two kinds of trespass are mentioned, but from these, the general principles for punishing trespass can be sufficiently understood. Accidental injury, such as that caused by fire spreading from one person’s field to another’s, was to be simply compensated up to the amount of damage done; voluntary injury, however, such as that resulting from turning beasts into a neighbor’s ground, was to be more than compensated. The amount of produce destroyed was to be exactly calculated, and then the injurer was to make good the full amount of his neighbor’s loss out of the best of his own produce.