The opening Mishna of Bava Kamma distinguishes four primary categories of damage — and the Gemara immediately asks why four, not three, and not five. The answer turns out to require a return to the verses themselves, and a careful look at what each verse is doing that the others are not.
This essay walks the chain of reasoning step by step, from pasuk to category to ruling, showing how the structure of the Mishna is itself an interpretation.