Keluaran 22:6

22:6 “If a fire breaks out and spreads ¹  to thorn bushes, ²  so that stacked grain or standing grain or the whole field is consumed, the one who started ³  the fire must surely make restitution.

Keluaran 22:2

22:2 “If a thief is caught ⁴  breaking in ⁵  and is struck so that he dies, there will be no blood guilt for him. ⁶ 

1 Samuel 14:30

14:30 Certainly if the army had eaten some of the enemies’ provisions that they came across today, would not the slaughter of the Philistines have been even greater?”

[22:6]  ¹ tn Heb “if a fire goes out and finds”; NLT “if a fire gets out of control.”

[22:6]  ² sn Thorn bushes were used for hedges between fields, but thorn bushes also burned easily, making the fire spread rapidly.

[22:6]  ³ tn This is a Hiphil participle of the verb “to burn, kindle” used substantivally. This is the one who caused the fire, whether by accident or not.

[22:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “found” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

[22:2]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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.