Exodus 22:2
If a thief is taken in the act of forcing his way into a house, and his death is caused by a blow, the owner of the house is not responsible for his blood.
Bible in Basic English
In The King James Version
If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.
In Context
3But if it is after dawn, he will be responsible.
Cross References
Numbers 35:27And the giver of punishment, meeting him outside the walls of the town, puts him to death, he will not be responsible for his blood:
Job 24:16In the dark he makes holes in the walls of houses: in the daytime they are shutting themselves up, they have no knowledge of the light.
Hosea 7:1When my desire was for the fate of my people to be changed and to make Israel well, then the sin of Ephraim was made clear, and the evil-doing of Samaria; for their ways are false, and the thief comes into the house, while the band of outlaws takes property by force in the streets.
Matthew 6:19Make no store of wealth for yourselves on earth, where it may be turned to dust by worms and weather, and where thieves may come in by force and take it away.
1 Thessalonians 5:2For you yourselves have the knowledge that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
Matthew Henry on Exodus 22:2-7
Judicial Laws. ( b. c. 1491.) 1 If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. 2 If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him. 3 If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. 4 If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep; he… Read the whole commentary →