מַחְתֶּ֫רֶת

From the study of Exodus 22:2

Range of meaning

A noun from the root ḥ-t-r, 'to dig, dig through.' It means 'a digging-through, a breach,' and so the act of burgling a house by tunnelling into it. The noun occurs only here and in Jeremiah 2:34. The verb is used for digging through a wall (Ezek 8:8; 12:5, 7, 12), for burglars who 'dig through houses in the dark' (Job 24:16), for digging down into Sheol (Amos 9:2), and for sailors 'digging' hard at the oars (Jonah 1:13).

Against the English

'Breaking in' (BSB, WEB, ESV, NIV) makes a modern reader picture a forced door or a smashed window. KJV's 'breaking up' and YLT's 'breaking through' are closer to the image of a breach. The Hebrew picture is a man half-way through a hole he has dug in the wall at night.

How it drifted

Most modern houses have doors and locks, so 'breaking in' now suggests forcing an entry point. Israelite houses usually had stone footings with mud-brick walls above, and a determined thief could simply dig through them.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Laws of Hammurabi §21 deal with the same act in the same terms: a man who 'breaks a breach' (Akkadian pilšam palāšu) into a house is to be killed and hung or walled up in front of that breach. The Greek Septuagint (LXX) translates the word as diorygma, 'a digging-through.' Jesus uses the related verb diorussō when he speaks of thieves who 'dig through' (Matt 6:19–20) and of a householder who would not have let his house be 'dug through' (Matt 24:43; Luke 12:39). In Jeremiah 2:34 the prophet charges Judah: the blood of the innocent poor is on your skirts, and 'not in the maḥteret did you find them.' He is alluding to this law: those victims were not burglars caught in the act, so their killing had no excuse.

From the study of Jeremiah 2:34

Range of meaning

From ḥatar, 'to dig, break through'. Houses were built of mud brick, so a burglar literally dug through the wall (Job 24:16; Ezek 8:8; 12:5, 7). The noun means the act of breaking in, a burglary in progress. It occurs only in Exod 22:1 (Heb.) and here.

Against the English

Most modern versions say 'breaking in'. KJV says 'by secret search', taking 'digging' to mean digging for evidence, so that God did not need to search because the blood lay in plain sight. YLT keeps the literal 'digging'.

How it drifted

KJV's 'secret search' is an interpretive guess made before the link to Exod 22 was widely seen. It hides the legal allusion.

Used elsewhere in the period

Exod 22:1–2 (Heb. 22:1–2; Eng. 22:2–3): 'If a thief is found (yimmatse') breaking in (bammaḥteret) and is struck so that he dies, there is no bloodguilt for him; but if the sun has risen on him, there is bloodguilt.' Jeremiah repeats the same verb 'find' and the same noun.