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
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.