Digest of Biblical Civil Law

To use the biblical example of fire Exo. 22:5-6, a man who permits a fire to get out of control may see an entire town burned to the ground. There is no way, economically, that he can make full restitution. In fact, it would be almost impossibly expensive to assess the value of the destroyed property. Therefore, in high-risk situations, the civil government can legitimately establish minimum fire prevention standards. Analogously, the civil government can establish medical quarantines to protect public health.

- James Jordan, The Law of the Covenant 139 (1984), at http://www.garynorth.com/freebooks/: HTML, DjVu.