46 Bible Verses about Killing

"You shall not murder.

'You shall not murder.

And {your lifeblood} I will require; from {every animal} I will require it. And from the hand of humankind, from the hand of [each] man to his brother I will require the life of humankind. "[As for] the one shedding the blood of humankind, by humankind his blood shall be shed, for God made humankind in his own image.

Indeed the flesh's life [is] in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your lives, because it [is] the blood with the life that makes atonement.

"[As for] the one shedding the blood of humankind, by humankind his blood shall be shed, for God made humankind in his own image.

" '{Whoever strikes someone} and he dies will surely be put to death.

" 'You will not let a witch live. " 'Anyone lying with an animal will surely be put to death. " 'Whoever sacrifices to the gods--not to Yahweh, to him alone--will be destroyed.

"{If a matter is too difficult for you}, [for example disputes] between blood and blood, between legal claim and legal claim and between assault and assault [and between] matters of discernment in your {towns}, then you shall get up and you shall go to the place that Yahweh your God will choose; then you shall go to the priests and the Levites and to the judge who will be [in office] in those days, and you shall enquire, and they shall announce to you {the verdict}. "And {you shall carry out exactly the decision} that they announced to you from that place that Yahweh will choose, and {you shall diligently observe} according to all that they instruct you.read more.
[And so] according to {the instruction of the law} that they teach you and according to the decisions that they say to you, you shall do; you shall not turn from the word that they tell you to the right or [to the] left. And the man who treats with contempt [so as] not to listen to the priest [who] [is] standing to minister on behalf of Yahweh your God or to the judge, that man shall die; so you shall purge the evil from Israel. And all the people will hear and will be afraid, and they will not behave presumptuously again.

"{If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son} [who] {does not listen to} the voice of his father and to the voice of his mother, and they discipline him, and he does not obey them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him, and they shall bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his {town}, and they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This our son [is] stubborn and rebellious; {he does not obey us}, [and] he is a glutton and a drunkard.'read more.
Then all the men of his city shall stone him with stones and let him die; and so you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all of Israel will hear, and they will fear.

and [then] they shall bring out the young woman to the doorway of the house of her father, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones, and she shall die, because she did a disgraceful thing in Israel {by playing the harlot} [in] the house of her father, and so you shall purge the evil from your midst. "If a man is found lying {with a married woman}, then they shall both die; {both of them}, the man who lay with the woman and the woman [also], so you shall purge the evil from Israel. "If it happens [that] a young woman, a virgin, [is] engaged to a man, [and] a man finds her in the town and lies with her,read more.
then you shall bring out {both of them} to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them with stones so that they shall die, the young woman because she did not cry out in the town, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife; and so you shall purge the evil from your midst. "But if the man finds the young engaged woman in the field and the man overpowers her and {he has sex with her}, then the man only must die who lay with her. But you shall not do anything to the young woman, [for] there is not [reckoned] against the young woman {a sin deserving death}; {it is similar to when} a man rises up against his neighbor and murders him, {a fellow human being}, [just] so [is] this {case}, for he found her in the field, the engaged young woman cried out, but there was no rescuer {to help her}.

his dead body shall not hang on the tree, but certainly you shall bury him on that day, for cursed by God [is] one that is [being] hung; so you shall not defile your land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as an] inheritance."

But if he did not lie in wait {and it was an accident}, I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee.

Then Moses set apart three cities {on the other side of the Jordan}, {toward the east}, [in order for] {a manslayer} to flee there [who] has killed his neighbor {without intent} and was not hating him {previously}, and [so] he could flee to one of these cities {and be safe}.

you shall set apart three cities for you in the midst of your land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you to take possession of it. You shall prepare the roads for yourselves, and you shall divide the regions of your land into thirds that Yahweh your God gives you as a possession, so that {it will be available for any manslayer to flee there}. "Now this [is] the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live [there] who has killed his neighbor {unintentionally}, and he did not hate him {previously}.read more.
{For example}, when somebody goes with his neighbor into the forest to cut wood, and the iron [head] slips from the handle [of the tool] and strikes his neighbor and he dies, [then] he may flee to one of these cities, and [so] he may live. [He does this] lest the avenger of blood might pursue after the killer, because {he is hot with anger} and he overtakes him, because it is a long distance [to the city of refuge], and [so] {he kills him}, but {he did not deserve a death sentence}, because he [was] not hating him {before}. Therefore I [am] commanding you, {saying}, 'You shall set apart three cities.' Then if Yahweh your God enlarges your territory [just] as he swore to your ancestors and gives to you all the land that he {promised} to give to your ancestors, [then] {if you diligently observe this entire commandment} that I [am] commanding you {today} by loving Yahweh your God and by going in his ways {at all times}, then you shall add three more cities for yourselves to these three. [Do this] so that innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as an] inheritance and [thereby] bloodguilt would be on you. But if someone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him {and murders him}, and [the murderer] flees to one of these cities, then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and they shall give him into the hand of the avenger of blood, and he shall be put to death. Your eye shall not take pity on him, and you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, {so that good will be directed toward you}.

The city and all that is in it will be devoted to Yahweh; only Rahab the prostitute and all who [are] with her in the house will live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.

"When you approach a city to fight against it, {you must offer it peace}. {And then} if {they accept your terms of peace} and {they surrender to you}, {and then} all the people {inhabiting it} shall be forced labor for you, and they shall serve you. But if they {do not accept your terms of peace} and they want to make war with you, then you shall lay siege against it.read more.
And Yahweh your God will give it into your hand, and you shall kill all its males with the {edge} of [the] sword. Only the women and the little children and the domestic animals and all that shall be in the city, all of its spoil you may loot for yourselves, and you may enjoy the spoil of your enemies that Yahweh you God has given to you. Thus you shall do to all the far cities from you, which [are] not from the cities of these nations located {nearby}.

"{Any man} from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox or a sheep or a goat in the camp or who slaughters [it] {outside the camp} and he does not bring it to the tent of assembly's entrance to present an offering to Yahweh {before} Yahweh's tabernacle, then that man shall be accounted bloodguilty--he has poured out blood, and that man shall be cut off from the midst of his people. [This is] so that the {Israelites} may bring their sacrifices that they are sacrificing {in the open field} and bring them for Yahweh to [the] tent of assembly's entrance to the priest, and they shall sacrifice fellowship offerings for Yahweh with them.read more.
And the priest shall sprinkle the blood on Yahweh's altar [at the] tent of assembly's entrance, and he shall {burn} the fat as an appeasing fragrance for Yahweh. And {they may no longer sacrifice} their sacrifices to the goat-idols after which they were prostituting. This is {a lasting statute} for them {throughout} their generations." '

"But {whenever you desire} you may slaughter, and you may eat meat according to the blessing of Yahweh your God that he has given to you in all [of] your {towns}; the unclean and the clean may eat it [just] as [they would] the gazelle and as the deer. Only the blood you must not eat, [but] on the ground you must pour it like water.

"If a bird's nest is found {before you} on the road in any tree or on the ground, [and there are] chicks or eggs, and the mother [is] lying down on the chicks or the eggs, you shall not take the mother along with the young; you shall certainly let the mother go, but you may take the young for yourselves; [do this] {so that it may go well} for you and {you may live long in the land}.