Exodus 22:2

22:2 “If a thief is caught ¹  breaking in ²  and is struck so that he dies, there will be no blood guilt for him. ³ 

Deuteronomy 19:6

19:6 Otherwise the blood avenger will chase after the killer in the heat of his anger, eventually overtake him, ⁴  and kill him, ⁵  though this is not a capital case ⁶  since he did not hate him at the time of the accident.

Deuteronomy 19:10

19:10 You must not shed innocent blood ⁷  in your land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty. ⁸ 

¹ tn Heb “found” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

² tn The word בַּמַּחְתֶּרֶת (bammakhteret) means “digging through” the walls of a house (usually made of mud bricks). The verb is used only a few times and has the meaning of dig in (as into houses) or row hard (as in Jonah 1:13).

³ tn The text has “there is not to him bloods.” When the word “blood” is put in the plural, it refers to bloodshed, or the price of blood that is shed, i.e., blood guiltiness.

⁴ tn Heb “and overtake him, for the road is long.”

⁵ tn Heb “smite with respect to life,” that is, fatally.

⁶ tn Heb “no judgment of death.”

⁷ tn Heb “innocent blood must not be shed.” The Hebrew phrase דָּם נָקִי (dam naqiy) means the blood of a person to whom no culpability or responsibility adheres because what he did was without malice aforethought (HALOT 224 s.v דָּם 4.b).

⁸ tn Heb “and blood will be upon you” (cf. KJV, ASV); NRSV “thereby bringing bloodguilt upon you.”