Bible Strands
Exodus 22:2
If a thief is caught breaking in and is beaten to death, no one shall be guilty of bloodshed.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God delivers this statute to Israel through Moses, codifying boundaries for nighttime property defense within the Sinai covenant.
The words — The verse pivots on בַּמַּחְתֶּרֶת (ba.mach.te.ret), meaning in the breaking in, and דָּמִים (da.mim), meaning blood<s>, which establish the legal threshold for culpable killing.
The thread — This distinction between excused and guilty bloodshed connects to Numbers 35:27 on the avenger of blood outside a city of refuge and Jesus’ warning in Matthew 24:43 about the homeowner who keeps watch.
Why it lands — The text states that lethal force is legally excused only during a nighttime break-in, requiring readers to apply precise conditions rather than blanket permissions when protecting property or life.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.
Cross-references
- Matthew 24:43 But understand this: If the homeowner had known in which watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.
- Numbers 35:27 and the avenger of blood finds him outside of his city of refuge and kills him, then the avenger will not be guilty of bloodshed,
- Matthew 6:19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
- Job 24:14 When daylight is gone, the murderer rises to kill the poor and needy; in the night he is like a thief.
- Job 30:5 They were banished from among men, shouted at like thieves,
- Hosea 7:1 When I heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim will be exposed, as well as the crimes of Samaria. For they practice deceit and thieves break in; bandits raid in the streets.
- Joel 2:9 They storm the city; they run along the wall; they climb into houses, entering through windows like thieves.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:2 For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.