Exodus 22:2

Exodus 22:2. If a thief be found breaking up— That is, if he were found in the very act of breaking into a house, then reason and self-defence justified the destroying such a person, and accordingly the Divine law adjudged such homicide guiltless. The law of Solon, and of the twelve tables, agreed with this; and it was one of Plato's laws, that if a thief entered a man's house by night, the man was justified in killing him. We add there shall no blood be shed for him: the Hebrew is only no blood for him; that is, says Houbigant, there shall be no avenging of his blood: דמים damim, is often so used: for him refers to the thief, not to the homicide.