What Does Exodus 22:2 Mean in the King James?
If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The decisive detail is a breach in progress: the thief is caught digging through the boundary when the fatal blow happens.
THE MEANING
This verse places the fatal blow in a precise scene: a thief is found breaking in, struck, and killed, and the text assigns no bloodguilt in that encounter. The circumstances of the breach are part of the rule itself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that every fatal blow against a thief carries the same bloodguilt; here, the ruling turns on the break-in being underway.
THE ROOT
מַחְתֶּרֶת
machteret
GROWS FROM
חתר
ḥ-t-r
to dig or bore through
“breaking up” in this verse is machteret. The word for the break-in carries the image of a dug-through passage, a breach made by boring through a barrier. The thief is caught in the act of crossing the household boundary by force.
ALSO GROWS
chatar: to dig through
חָתַר
The verb makes the breach an action in progress, matching the scene in which the thief is found.
choter: one who digs through
חֹתֵר
This participle pictures the person by the act of making a passage through a barrier.
machteret: a breach or passage made by digging
מַחְתֶּרֶת
This noun names the opening itself, keeping the focus on the boundary being broken through.
וְהֻכָּה
vehukkah
GROWS FROM
נכה
n-k-h
to strike or smite
“smitten” in this verse is vehukkah. The strike and the blow belong to one word-family: the force of the act remains present in the wound it makes. Here, that force ends in death, and the rule names the bloodguilt of that encounter.
ALSO GROWS
nakah: to strike or smite
נָכָה
The verb names the force applied in the encounter.
makkah: a blow or wound
מַכָּה
The noun carries the strike forward into its physical result.
mukkeh: one who is struck
מֻכֶּה
This form keeps the person and the received blow joined in the wording.
הַגַּנָּב
ha-gannav
GROWS FROM
גנב
g-n-b
to steal or take secretly
The word for the thief and the verb for stealing grow from one root, keeping the person tied to the act of taking. Set beside the root for digging through, the verse joins taking with a physical breach of the boundary.
ALSO GROWS
ganav: to steal
גָּנַב
The verb names the taking that makes the person a thief.
genevah: theft
גְּנֵבָה
This noun names the act or result of taking, keeping it connected to the thief.
gannav: thief
גַּנָּב
This is the person-word from the same root as the act of stealing.
THE PATTERN
Scripture weighs harmful acts in light of how they happen and what the actor knows.
And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.And this is the case of the slayer, which shall flee thither, that he may live: Whoso killeth his neighbour ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past;And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.THE THREAD
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.The next verse changes the conditions: when the sun has risen, bloodguilt applies and restitution follows. Read together, the verses show how the timing and circumstances of the same break-in shape the ruling.
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