Exodus 22:2

_IF A THIEF BE FOUND BREAKING UP, AND BE SMITTEN THAT HE DIE, THERE SHALL NO BLOOD BE SHED FOR HIM._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

2._If a thief be found breaking up_. This clause is to be taken separately, and is inserted by way of parenthesis; for, after having decreed the punishment, God adds in connection, “he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he should be sold for his theft;” and this exception as to the thief in the night is introduced parenthetically. But although the details are not expressed with sufficient distinctness, still the intention of God is by no means ambiguous, viz., that if a thief should be killed in the dark, his slayer should be unpunished; for he can then hardly be distinguished from a robber, especially when he proceeds with violence; because he cannot enter another man’s house by night without either digging through a wall or breaking down a door. The Twelve Tables (135) differ slightly from this; for they permit the killing of a thief by night, and also by day if he...

Verse Exodus 22:2. _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_ burglaries would go unpunished. And besides, the _malignity_ of the offence does not so properly arise, as Mr. Justice _Blackstone_ obse...

If a thief, in breaking into a dwelling in the night, was slain, the person who slew him did not incur the guilt of blood; but if the same occurred in daylight, the slayer was guilty in accordance with Exodus 21:12. The distinction may have been based on the fact that in the light of day there was a fair chance of identifying and apprehending the thief....

EXPOSITION THE BOOK OF THE COVENANT, _continued_. _Laws connected with rights of property, continued_ (Exodus 22:1). The fret section—Exodus 22:1—is upon theft. The general principle laid down is, that theft shall be punished if possible, by a fine. There is a moral fitness in this, since a man's desire to get what was his neighbour's would lead to the loss of what was his own. In ordinary cases the thief was to restore to the man robbed double of what he had stolen (Exodus 22:4) but, if he had shewn persistence in wrong doing by selling the property, or (if it were an animal) killing it, he was to pay more—four

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 Maimonides z observes, "it is well known, that if anyone enters with a digging instrument, that he intends, if the master of the house opposes him to deliver his goods out of his power, that he will kill...

CHAPTER 22 FURTHER JUDGMENTS _ 1. Concerning theft (Exodus 22:1)_ 2. Concerning neglect in case of fire (Exodus 22:6) 3. Concerning dishonesty (Exodus 22:7) 4. Concerning immoralities and forbidden things (Exodus 22:16) 5. Concerning oppression (Exodus 22:21) 6. Concerning offerings to God (Exodus 22:29) These laws need no further comment; they are good and just. The wisdom of them is the wisdom from above. We call atte

EXODUS 22:1 E. THEFT AND DAMAGE. Fourfold restitution was due (Exodus 22:1), as in Roman law and Bedawin custom, for theft of a sheep (though fivefold for the doubly useful ox), reduced to twofold (Exodus 22:4) if returned alive (_i.e._ the stolen animal and another). A similar principle is found in Bab., Gr., Roman, and Indian law Probably Exodus 22:3 b links Exodus 22:4 directly to Exodus 22:1, providing that a pauper thief shall be sold to provide restitution money. Then, Budd

FOUND: i, e. caught in the act of....

1 4. Theft of ox or sheep; and burglary....