a stealer · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
found
יִמָּצֵ֥אyi.ma.Tze'
H4672
properly · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
up
בַּמַּחְתֶּ֛רֶתba.mach.Te.ret
H4290
a burglary · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
smitten
וְהֻכָּ֣הve.hu.Kah
H5221
to strike (lightly or severely · conjunction + verb, hophal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
die
וָמֵ֑תva.Met
H4191
to die (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
blood
דָּמִֽיםda.Mim
H1818
blood (as that which when shed causes death) of man or… · noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Matthew 24:43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suff…
Numbers 35:27 And the revenger of blood find him without the borders of the city of his refuge, and the revenger of blood kill the slayer; he shall not be…
Matthew 6:19-20 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
Job 24:14 The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.
Job 30:5 They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;)
Hosea 7:1 When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and…
Joel 2:9 They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows…
1 Thessalonians 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Exodus 22:1-6
Here are the laws,
I. Concerning theft, which are these: - 1. If a man steal any cattle (in which the wealth of those times chiefly consisted), and they be found in his custody, he must restore double, Exo 22:4. Thus he must both satisfy for the wrong and suffer for the crime. But it was afterwards provided that if the thief were touched in conscience, and voluntarily confessed it, before it was discovered or enquired into by any other, then he should only make restitution of what he had stolen, and add to it a fifth part, Lev 6:4, Lev 6:5. 2. If he had killed or sold the sheep or ox he had stolen, and thereby persisted in his crime, he must restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a…
If a thief be found - If a thief was found breaking into a house in the night season, he might be killed; but not if the sun had risen, for then he might be known and taken, and the restitution made which is mentioned in the succeeding verse. So by the law of England it is a burglary to break and enter a house by night; and "anciently the day was accounted to begin only from sunrising, and to end immediately upon sunset: but it is now generally agreed that if there be daylight enough begun or left, either by the light of the sun or twilight, whereby the countenance of a person may reasonably be discerned, it is no burglary; but that this does not extend to moonlight, for then many midnight b…
If a thief be found breaking up,.... An house, in order to steal money, jewels, household goods, &c. or breaking through any fence, hedge, or wall of any enclosure, where oxen, or sheep, or any other creatures are, in order to take them away: the Targum of Jonathan is,"if in the hole of a wall (or window of it) a thief be found;''that is, in the night, as appears from the following verse, "if the sun", &c. to which this is opposed, as Aben Ezra observes; some render it, with a digging instrument (x); and it is a Jewish canon (y), that"if anyone enter with a digging instrument: he is condemned on account of his end;''his design, which is apparent by the instrument found upon him; for, as Maim…
The Church Fathers
Watch therefore, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. Not giving "sleep to the eyes" of our soul nor "slumber to the eyelids," so that we may await either our own end or the end of the age, whether that we should depart from this life or that this world should be brought to its consummation for us. But someone will ask how the Lord, established as present among the disciples, speaks thus, as though not present but about to come, saying to them: watch, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. And the one who is more simple will say that he spoke this discourse concerning the second coming, in which he was to come. But another will say that he was speaking of the intelligible coming of the Word, still to come into the understanding of the disciples, because it was not yet in their understanding in the way it was going to be: since (as he shows through this passage) in those who watch he works the day of his coming in the soul of those who are illumined by the true light of him who comes to their souls. Now the householder is the understanding of the man, and his house is his soul; but the thief, who comes suddenly while the householder sleeps and breaks into the house, is, I think, the devil or every contrary word, according to what the evangelist John teaches us, saying in this manner: "amen amen I say to you, he who does not enter through the door into the sheepfold but climbs up another way, that man is a thief and a robber". As, therefore, he who "enters through the door into the sheepfold" is "the shepherd of the sheep", for whom "the doorkeeper opens", but "he who does not enter through the door but climbs up another way is a thief and a robber", so the lord of the house enters into it confidently "through the door" when he wills, rewarding the one who watches; but the thief, being a thief, does not enter into the house to the soul of the negligent by the natural entrance, but (as one who has already broken into it) first destroying certain natural buildings of his soul and natural understandings, in him who has not watched — the things which God the Word had built. And having entered through that very breach, the thief plunders it, disarming the understanding, when, despoiling the householder who does not watch, "he will distribute his spoils". But sometimes someone catches the thief in the very act of breaking in, and…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Law of Moses — Is the whole body of the Mosaic legislation (1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 23:25; Ezra 3:2). It is called by way of eminence simply “the Law” (Heb. Torah, Deut. 1:5; 4:8, 44; 17:18, 19; 27:3, 8). As a written…
Manslayer — One who was guilty of accidental homicide, and was entitled to flee to a city of refuge (Num. 35:6, 12, 22, 23), his compulsory residence in which terminated with the death of the high priest. (See…
Murder — Wilful murder was distinguished from accidental homicide, and was invariably visited with capital punishment (Num. 35:16, 18, 21, 31; Lev. 24:17). This law in its principle is founded on the fact of…
Theft — Punished by restitution, the proportions of which are noted in 2 Sam. 12:6. If the thief could not pay the fine, he was to be sold to a Hebrew master till he could pay (Ex. 22:1-4). A night-thief…
Bullock · .Theft of — .Theft of
Homicide · Justifiable, described as: Killing a thief in the night — Justifiable, described as: Killing a thief in the night
Theft · Mosaic law respecting — Mosaic law respecting
Theft And Thieves · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Exodus 22:1-4
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.
1. Quum furatus fuerit quis bovem aut pecudem, et jugulaverit, aut vendiderit, quinque boves reddet pro illo bove, et quatuor pecudes pro pecude illa:
2. If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.
2. (Si in effossione inventus fuerit fur, et percussus fuerit, et inde mortuus, non erit ei in sanguinem.
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.
3. Si ortus fuerit sol s…
With regard to cattle-stealing, the law makes a distinction between what had been killed or sold, and what was still alive and in the thief's hand (or possession). In the latter case, the thief was to restore piece for piece twofold (Exo 22:4); in the former, he was to restore an ox fivefold and a small animal (a sheep or a goat) fourfold (Exo 22:1). The difference between the compensation for an ox and a small animal is to be accounted for from the comparative worth of the cattle to the possessor, which determined the magnitude of the theft and the amount of the compensation. But the other distinctions of twofold, fourfold, and fivefold restitution cannot be accounted for, either by supposi…
אם זרחה השמש עליו IF THE SUN SHONE UPON HIM — This is only a metaphorical expression signifying: if the fact is clear to you that he is peaceably disposed towards you. The simile is: just as the sun brings peace (happiness) to the world so if it is evident to you that he did not come with the intention of killing, even if the owner of the property would resist him (Sanhedrin 72a), as, for instance, when a father breaks in to steal the money of his son, for it is certain that the father cherishes feelings of pity for his child and the matter of taking human life is not in his thoughts at all, — then
דמים לו, then he is to be regarded as a living man (cf. Rashi’s explanation of אין לו דמים v.…
