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Hateth his own soul - נפשו naphsho, his life, as the outraged law may at any time seize on and put him to death.
He heareth cursing - אלה alah, the execration or adjuration, (for all culprits were charged, as before God, to tell the truth), יגד ולא velo yagpid, but He will not tell It. He has no fear of God, nor reverence for an oath, because his heart is hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
On the first discovery of the theft, the person wronged Judges 17:2, or the judge of the city (marginal reference), pronounced a solemn curse on the thief and on all who, knowing the offender, were unwilling to give evidence against him. The accomplice of the thief hears that curse, and yet is silent, and so falls under it, and “destroys his own soul.”