Keluaran 21:12-14

Personal Injuries

21:12 ¹ “Whoever strikes someone ²  so that he dies ³  must surely be put to death. ⁴  21:13 But if he does not do it with premeditation, ⁵  but it happens by accident, ⁶  then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee. 21:14 But if a man willfully attacks his neighbor to kill him cunningly, ⁷  you will take him even from my altar that he may die.

Keluaran 22:2-3

22:2 “If a thief is caught ⁸  breaking in ⁹  and is struck so that he dies, there will be no blood guilt for him. ¹⁰  22:3 If the sun has risen on him, then there is blood guilt for him. A thief ¹¹  must surely make full restitution; if he has nothing, then he will be sold for his theft.

[21:12]  ¹ sn The underlying point of this section remains vital today: The people of God must treat all human life as sacred.

[21:12]  ² tn The construction uses a Hiphil participle in construct with the noun for “man” (or person as is understood in a law for the nation): “the one striking [of] a man.” This is a casus pendens (independent nominative absolute); it indicates the condition or action that involves further consequence (GKC 361 §116.w).

[21:12]  ³ tn The Hebrew word וָמֵת (vamet) is a Qal perfect with vav consecutive; it means “and he dies” and not “and killed him” (which require another stem). Gesenius notes that this form after a participle is the equivalent of a sentence representing a contingent action (GKC 333 §112.n). The word shows the result of the action in the opening participle. It is therefore a case of murder or manslaughter.

[21:12]  ⁴ sn See A. Phillips, “Another Look at Murder,” JJS 28 (1977): 105-26.

[21:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “if he does not lie in wait” (NASB similar).

[21:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “and God brought into his hand.” The death is unintended, its circumstances outside human control.

[21:14]  ⁷ tn The word עָרְמָה (’ormah) is problematic. It could mean with prior intent, which would be connected with the word in Prov 8:5, 12 which means “understanding” (or “prudence” – fully aware of the way things are). It could be connected also to an Arabic word for “enemy” which would indicate this was done with malice or evil intentions (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 270). The use here seems parallel to the one in Josh 9:4, an instance involving intentionality and clever deception.

[22:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “found” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

[22:2]  ⁹ 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).

[22:2]  ¹⁰ 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.

[22:2]  sn This law focuses on what is reasonable defense against burglary. If someone killed a thief who was breaking in during the night, he was not charged because he would not have known it was just a thief, but if it happened during the day, he was guilty of a crime, on the assumption that in daylight the thief posed no threat to the homeowner’s life and could be stopped and made to pay restitution.

[22:3]  ¹¹ tn The words “a thief” have been added for clarification. S. R. Driver (Exodus, 224) thinks that these lines are out of order, since some of them deal with killing the thief and then others with the thief making restitution, but rearranging the clauses is not a necessary way to bring clarity to the paragraph. The idea here would be that any thief caught alive would pay restitution.