Reference: Murder
American
The designed and malevolent taking of human life, was by the original appointment of God, a crime to be punished by death. Cain, the first murderer, recognized it as such, Ge 4:14. The ground for the death penalty for murder is the eminent dignity and sacredness of man as a child of God, Ge 9:5-6. Like the Sabbath and marriage, it is a primeval and universal institution for mankind, and all nations have so recognized it, Ac 28:4. The Mosaic code reenacted it, Le 24:17; and while providing for the unintentional homicide a safe retreat, declares that deliberate murder must be punished by death, from which neither the city of refuge nor the altar of God could shield the criminal, Ex 21:12-14; Nu 35:9-34; De 19:1-13; 1Ki 2:5-6,28-34. Death was usually inflicted by stoning, upon the testimony of at least two witnesses, Nu 35:30. If a corpse were found in the open fields, and the murderer could not be discovered, the town nearest to the spot was obliged to purge itself by a solemn ceremony, lest it should become liable to the judgments of God, De 21:1-9. In various ways God is represented as specially abhorring this crime, and securing its punishment, De 32:43; 2Sa 21:1; Ps 9:12; 55:23; Ho 1:4; Re 22:15. Our Savior instructs us that one may be guilty, in the sight of God, of murder in the heart, without any overt act, Mt 5:21-22; 1Jo 3:15. Nothing is said especially in the law respecting self-murder, and only the cases of Saul, Ahithophel, and Judas are described in the Bible, 1Sa 31:4; 2Sa 17:23; Ac 1:18. Of all murders, that of the soul is incomparably the most awful, Joh 8:44, and many plunge not only themselves but also others into the second death.
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You are driving me from the land today. I will be hidden from your presence. I will be a restless (homeless) wanderer on the earth. And whoever finds me will kill me.
I will require your lifeblood as an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. I will demand an accounting from each man for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man will have his blood shed by man. For man was made in the image of God.
Death is the punishment for murder. If you did not intend to kill someone and I, Jehovah, let it happen anyway, you may run for safety to a place that I have set aside. read more. If a man schemes and kills a man deliberately remove him from my altar and put him to death.
Whoever kills another person must be put to death.
Jehovah continued to speak to Moses: Tell the Israelites: When you cross the Jordan River and enter Canaan, read more. select certain cities to be places of refuge. Anyone who unintentionally kills another person may run to them. These cities will be places of refuge from any relative who can avenge the death. So anyone accused of murder will not have to die until he has had a trial in front of the community. There will be six cities you select as places of refuge. Three will be on the east side of the Jordan River and three in Canaan. These six cities will be places of refuge for Israelites, foreigners, and strangers among you. Anyone who unintentionally kills another person may flee to these cities. If any of you uses an iron weapon to kill another person, you are a murderer. Murderers must be put to death. If any of you picks up a stone as a weapon and uses it to kill another person, you are a murderer. Murderers must be put to death. And if any of you picks up a piece of wood as a weapon and uses it to kill another person, you are a murderer. Murderers must be put to death. The relative who can avenge the death must make sure a murderer is put to death. When he catches up with the murderer, he must kill him. If any of you kills someone you hate by shoving him or by deliberately throwing something at him, or if you beat your enemy to death with your bare hands, you must be put to death. You are a murderer. The relative who can avenge the death must kill you when he catches up with you, because you are a murderer. Should you accidentally kill someone who was not your enemy. Maybe you shoved him or threw something at him but did not mean to kill him. Or if you drop a big stone, and someone is killed. However, you did not know the person was there, he was not your enemy, and you were not trying to harm him. Then the community must use these rules in order to decide if you are innocent or if the dead person's relative can avenge the death. If you are innocent, the community must protect you from that relative. They must take you back to the city of refuge you fled to. You must live there until the death of the chief priest who was anointed with the holy oil. But do not go outside the city of refuge you fled to. If the relative who can avenge the death finds you outside the city of refuge and kills you, the relative is not guilty of murder. Accused murderers must stay in their city of refuge until the death of the chief priest. They may go back to their own property only after his death. These rules apply to you and your descendants wherever you may live. Those accused of murder may be found guilty and put to death only on the evidence of two or more witnesses. The evidence of one witness is not sufficient to support an accusation of murder.
Those accused of murder may be found guilty and put to death only on the evidence of two or more witnesses. The evidence of one witness is not sufficient to support an accusation of murder. Murderers must be put to death. They cannot escape this penalty by the payment of money. read more. If they have fled to a city of refuge, do not allow them to make a payment in order to return home before the death of the High Priest. If you did this, you would defile the land where you are living. Murder defiles the land, and except by the death of the murderer there is no way to perform the ritual of purification for the land where someone has been murdered. Do not defile the land where you are living! I am Jehovah and I live among the people of Israel.
When Jehovah your God destroys all the nations that are living in the land that he gives you. you will force them out and live in their cities and houses. When all this is done, set aside three cities in the land that Jehovah your God gives you. read more. Provide a route to each of these cities and divide the land that Jehovah your God gives you into three regions. When a person kills someone he may run to one of these cities. A person who unintentionally kills someone he never hated in the past may run to one of these cities to save his life. For example: when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the handle and strikes his friend so that he dies. He may flee to one of these cities and live. Otherwise the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer in the heat of his anger. He may overtake him and because the way is long he may take his life. Even though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously. Hear my command: 'You must set aside three cities for yourself.' If Jehovah your God enlarges your territory, just as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land he promised to give your fathers. And if you carefully observe all this commandment I command you today, to love Jehovah your God, and to walk in his ways always you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three. Innocent blood will not be shed in your land that Jehovah your God gives you as an inheritance. Blood guiltiness will not be on you. But if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and murders him. If he flees to one of these cities, the elders of his city will send for him. They will take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood that he may die. Do not pity him. Purge the blood of the innocent from Israel that it may go well with you.
This is what you must do if you find a murder victim lying in a field in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you. If no one knows who committed the murder, your elders and judges must go and measure the distance from the body to each of the neighboring cities. read more. When it is determined which city is nearest the body, the elders from that city must choose a heifer that has never been put to work and never worn a yoke. The elders of that city will bring the heifer down to a river, to a location where the land has not been plowed or planted. At the river they must break the heifer's neck. Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near. Jehovah your God has chosen them to serve him and to bless in the name of Jehovah. They will settle every dispute and every assault. All the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. They will answer: 'Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did we see it. Forgive your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O Jehovah. Do not hold us responsible for the murder of an innocent person.' Forgive them of bloodguilt. Remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst. Do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah's.
Rejoice you nations with his people. He will avenge the blood of his servants. He will render vengeance on his adversaries, and will atone for his land and his people.
As they carried the ark into the Jordan and the feet of the priests dipped into the water, for Jordan is at food stage at the time of harvest.
He said to the young man carrying his weapons: Draw your sword and kill me. That way these godless Philistines will not gloat over me and kill me. But the young man was too terrified to do it. So Saul took his own sword and threw himself on it.
God remembers those who suffer. He does not forget their cry, and he punishes those who wrong them.
But You, O God, will bring them down to the corruption of the grave. Men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in you.
Jehovah said to Hosea: Name him Jezreel. In a little while I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu. I will cause the kingdom of Israel to cease.
You were told in the past, do not murder (kill). Any one who murders will be brought to trial. Now I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother [without cause] shall be guilty before the court. Whoever speaks to his brother with words of contempt shall receive condemnation before the Sanhedrin [Supreme Court]. Curse your brother and you will be guilty enough to be destroyed by fire, with the burning trash, at the Valley of Hinnom, outside of Jerusalem (Greek: Gehenna).
You are from your father [Satan] the Devil (slanderer) (false accuser)! You want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning. He does not stand for the truth. There is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks his own lies. He is a liar and the father of the lie!
This man obtained a field with the reward of his wickedness; and falling headlong, he burst open and all his intestines spilled out. (Matthew 27:5 says he hanged himself. The rope broke or the branch on which it was tied broke. Then he fell to the ground and burst open.)
The natives saw the snake hanging on Paul's hand and said to one another: This man must be a murderer, but Fate will not let him live, even though he escaped from the sea.
Outside are the dogs (impure men) and those who practice spiritism, and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and everyone who tells lies.'
Easton
Wilful murder was distinguished from accidental homicide, and was invariably visited with capital punishment (Nu 35:16,18,21,31; Le 24:17). This law in its principle is founded on the fact of man's having been made in the likeness of God (Ge 9:5-6; Joh 8:44; 1Jo 3:12,15). The Mosiac law prohibited any compensation for murder or the reprieve of the murderer (Ex 21:12,14; De 19:11,13; 2Sa 17:25; 20:10). Two witnesses were required in any capital case (Nu 35:19-30; De 17:6-12). If the murderer could not be discovered, the city nearest the scene of the murder was required to make expiation for the crime committed (De 21:1-9). These offences also were to be punished with death, (1) striking a parent; (2) cursing a parent; (3) kidnapping (Ex 21:15-17; De 27:16).
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I will require your lifeblood as an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. I will demand an accounting from each man for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man will have his blood shed by man. For man was made in the image of God.
Death is the punishment for murder.
If a man schemes and kills a man deliberately remove him from my altar and put him to death. He who strikes (beats) his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. read more. Whoever kidnaps another person must be put to death regardless of whether he has sold the kidnapped person or still has him. Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.
Whoever kills another person must be put to death.
If any of you uses an iron weapon to kill another person, you are a murderer. Murderers must be put to death.
And if any of you picks up a piece of wood as a weapon and uses it to kill another person, you are a murderer. Murderers must be put to death. The relative who can avenge the death must make sure a murderer is put to death. When he catches up with the murderer, he must kill him. read more. If any of you kills someone you hate by shoving him or by deliberately throwing something at him, or if you beat your enemy to death with your bare hands, you must be put to death. You are a murderer. The relative who can avenge the death must kill you when he catches up with you, because you are a murderer.
or if you beat your enemy to death with your bare hands, you must be put to death. You are a murderer. The relative who can avenge the death must kill you when he catches up with you, because you are a murderer. Should you accidentally kill someone who was not your enemy. Maybe you shoved him or threw something at him but did not mean to kill him. read more. Or if you drop a big stone, and someone is killed. However, you did not know the person was there, he was not your enemy, and you were not trying to harm him. Then the community must use these rules in order to decide if you are innocent or if the dead person's relative can avenge the death. If you are innocent, the community must protect you from that relative. They must take you back to the city of refuge you fled to. You must live there until the death of the chief priest who was anointed with the holy oil. But do not go outside the city of refuge you fled to. If the relative who can avenge the death finds you outside the city of refuge and kills you, the relative is not guilty of murder. Accused murderers must stay in their city of refuge until the death of the chief priest. They may go back to their own property only after his death. These rules apply to you and your descendants wherever you may live. Those accused of murder may be found guilty and put to death only on the evidence of two or more witnesses. The evidence of one witness is not sufficient to support an accusation of murder. Murderers must be put to death. They cannot escape this penalty by the payment of money.
On the evidence and testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. He shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. The witnesses must throw the first stone to put him to death, and afterward all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. read more. If any case is too difficult for you to decide, between one kind of homicide or another, between one kind of lawsuit or another, and between one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your courts, then you should go to the place Jehovah your God chooses. Approach the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days. Inquire of them and they will declare to you the verdict in the case. Act according to the terms of the verdict they declare to you from that place Jehovah chooses. Be careful to abide by all that they teach you. Act according to the verdict and the terms they tell you. Do not turn away from the word they declare to you. The man who acts presumptuously and does not listen to the priest or the judge will die. This way you will purge the evil from Israel. The priests and judges are there to serve Jehovah your God.
But if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and murders him. If he flees to one of these cities,
Do not pity him. Purge the blood of the innocent from Israel that it may go well with you.
This is what you must do if you find a murder victim lying in a field in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you. If no one knows who committed the murder, your elders and judges must go and measure the distance from the body to each of the neighboring cities. read more. When it is determined which city is nearest the body, the elders from that city must choose a heifer that has never been put to work and never worn a yoke. The elders of that city will bring the heifer down to a river, to a location where the land has not been plowed or planted. At the river they must break the heifer's neck. Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near. Jehovah your God has chosen them to serve him and to bless in the name of Jehovah. They will settle every dispute and every assault. All the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. They will answer: 'Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did we see it. Forgive your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O Jehovah. Do not hold us responsible for the murder of an innocent person.' Forgive them of bloodguilt. Remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst. Do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah's.
Cursed is the man who dishonors his father or mother. All the people will say: Amen.
As they carried the ark into the Jordan and the feet of the priests dipped into the water, for Jordan is at food stage at the time of harvest.
You are from your father [Satan] the Devil (slanderer) (false accuser)! You want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning. He does not stand for the truth. There is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks his own lies. He is a liar and the father of the lie!
Fausets
In the Scripture view an outrage or sacrilege (Philo, Spec. Leg. 3:15) on God's likeness in man. Ge 9:5-6, "whose sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made He man." His blood was so sacred that "God requires it (compare Ps 9:12) of every beast"; so the ox that gored man must be killed (Ex 21:28). God's image implies in man a personal, moral, and responsible will. To cut short his day of grace and probation is the greatest wrong to man and insult to his Maker. Cain's punishment God Himself took in hand, dooming him to a life full of fears, remorse, and guilt. His life was temporarily spared, perhaps in order not to impede the natural increase of mankind at the first. But after the flood God delegated thenceforth the murderer's punishment, which is death, to man; life must go for life, blood for blood.
Murder results from the instigation of Satan the "murderer (of Adam's and Eve's souls, and Abel's body) from the beginning" (Joh 8:44). Not only the killer but the hater is a murderer before God (1Jo 3:12,15).Even a slave's life sacrificed under the rod entailed death, or some heavy punishment as the judges should decide on the master, unless the slave survived the beating a day or two, when it was presumed the master did not intend to kill him and the loss of his slave was deemed enough punishment (Ex 21:12,20-21). A housebreaker might be killed in the act by night; but if by day he was to be sold, so sacred was life regarded (Ex 22:2-3). The cities of refuge saved the manslayer, but not the murderer, from the blood avenger. (See CITIES OF REFUGE.)
Not even Jehovah's altar could save Joab (1Ki 2:5-6,31). Bloodshed in any way, even in war, brought pollution (Nu 35:33-34; De 21:1-9; 1Ch 28:3, David; 1Ch 22:8). Striking a pregnant woman so as to cause death brought capital punishment. Two witnesses were required before anyone could be put to death for murder, a check on private revenge (Nu 35:19-30; De 17:6-12; 19:12,17). The sovereign assumed the power of executing or pardoning murderers (2Sa 1:15-16, David and the Amalekite slayer of Saul; 2Sa 13:39; 14:7-11, David in respect to Anmon and Absalom; 1Ki 2:34, Solomon and Joab).
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I will require your lifeblood as an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. I will demand an accounting from each man for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man will have his blood shed by man. For man was made in the image of God.
Death is the punishment for murder.
If a slave owner takes a stick and beats his slave, whether male or female, and the slave dies on the spot, the owner is to be punished. If the slave lives a few days after the beating, you are not to be punished. After all, you have already lost the services of that slave who was your property.
If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall go unpunished.
If the thief is caught while breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there will be no blood guiltiness on his account. But if it happens after sunrise, he is guilty of murder. A thief must make up for what he has stolen. If he is unable to do so, he should be sold as a slave to pay for what he stole.
The relative who can avenge the death must make sure a murderer is put to death. When he catches up with the murderer, he must kill him. If any of you kills someone you hate by shoving him or by deliberately throwing something at him, read more. or if you beat your enemy to death with your bare hands, you must be put to death. You are a murderer. The relative who can avenge the death must kill you when he catches up with you, because you are a murderer. Should you accidentally kill someone who was not your enemy. Maybe you shoved him or threw something at him but did not mean to kill him. Or if you drop a big stone, and someone is killed. However, you did not know the person was there, he was not your enemy, and you were not trying to harm him. Then the community must use these rules in order to decide if you are innocent or if the dead person's relative can avenge the death. If you are innocent, the community must protect you from that relative. They must take you back to the city of refuge you fled to. You must live there until the death of the chief priest who was anointed with the holy oil. But do not go outside the city of refuge you fled to. If the relative who can avenge the death finds you outside the city of refuge and kills you, the relative is not guilty of murder. Accused murderers must stay in their city of refuge until the death of the chief priest. They may go back to their own property only after his death. These rules apply to you and your descendants wherever you may live. Those accused of murder may be found guilty and put to death only on the evidence of two or more witnesses. The evidence of one witness is not sufficient to support an accusation of murder.
If you did this, you would defile the land where you are living. Murder defiles the land, and except by the death of the murderer there is no way to perform the ritual of purification for the land where someone has been murdered. Do not defile the land where you are living! I am Jehovah and I live among the people of Israel.
On the evidence and testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. He shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. The witnesses must throw the first stone to put him to death, and afterward all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. read more. If any case is too difficult for you to decide, between one kind of homicide or another, between one kind of lawsuit or another, and between one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your courts, then you should go to the place Jehovah your God chooses. Approach the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days. Inquire of them and they will declare to you the verdict in the case. Act according to the terms of the verdict they declare to you from that place Jehovah chooses. Be careful to abide by all that they teach you. Act according to the verdict and the terms they tell you. Do not turn away from the word they declare to you. The man who acts presumptuously and does not listen to the priest or the judge will die. This way you will purge the evil from Israel. The priests and judges are there to serve Jehovah your God.
the elders of his city will send for him. They will take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood that he may die.
The two people involved must stand in Jehovah's presence, in front of the priests and judges who are serving at that time.
This is what you must do if you find a murder victim lying in a field in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you. If no one knows who committed the murder, your elders and judges must go and measure the distance from the body to each of the neighboring cities. read more. When it is determined which city is nearest the body, the elders from that city must choose a heifer that has never been put to work and never worn a yoke. The elders of that city will bring the heifer down to a river, to a location where the land has not been plowed or planted. At the river they must break the heifer's neck. Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near. Jehovah your God has chosen them to serve him and to bless in the name of Jehovah. They will settle every dispute and every assault. All the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. They will answer: 'Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did we see it. Forgive your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O Jehovah. Do not hold us responsible for the murder of an innocent person.' Forgive them of bloodguilt. Remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst. Do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah's.
David called one of the young men and said: Execute him! So he struck him and he died. David said to him: Your blood is on your head. Your mouth has testified against you. For you admit that you killed Jehovah's anointed.
King David longed for Absalom once people had consoled him over Amnon's death.
All my relatives have turned against me and are demanding that I hand my son over to them. They want to kill him for murdering his brother. If they do this, I will be left without a son. They will destroy my last hope. They will leave my husband without a son to keep his name alive. The king responded: Go back home. I will take care of the matter. read more. Your Majesty, she said, do whatever you must. My family and I will take the blame. You and the royal family are innocent. The king replied: If someone threatens you, bring him to me. He will never bother you again. She said: Please pray to Jehovah your God, Your Majesty, so that my relative who is responsible for avenging the death of my son will not commit a greater crime by killing my other son. I promise by the living Jehovah, David replied, your son will not be harmed.
Remember what Joab did to me by killing the two commanders of Israel's armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. You remember how he murdered them in time of peace. This was revenge for deaths they had caused in time of war. He killed innocent men. I bear the responsibility for what he did. I suffer the consequences. You know what to do. You must not let him die a natural death.
The king said: Do as he said. Kill him there and bury him in the earth. This will remove the guilt of his senseless murders from my father's family and me.
So Benaiah went to the Tent of Jehovah's presence and killed Joab. He was buried at his home in the wilderness.
The word of Jehovah came to me, saying: 'You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my name. This is because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight.
God remembers those who suffer. He does not forget their cry, and he punishes those who wrong them.
You are from your father [Satan] the Devil (slanderer) (false accuser)! You want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning. He does not stand for the truth. There is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks his own lies. He is a liar and the father of the lie!
We should not be like Cain who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. Why did he murder him? It was because his works were evil, and his brother's were righteous.
Whoever hates his brother is a murderer! You know that no murderer has everlasting life remaining in him.
Hastings
Morish
The first death was caused by murder when Cain slew his brother Abel, and the second recorded is when Lamech said, "I have slain a man to my wounding," or "for my wound;" which may mean that he did it in self-defence. Ge 4:23. God set a mark upon Cain that none should kill him; and Lamech said, "If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold." After the flood God made a definite law concerning murder. God would require expiation for the blood of man, whether it was shed by beast or by man; at the hand of every man's brother, or kinsman, God would require the life of man. "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man." Ge 9:5-6. This injunction was repeated in the law, and has never been rescinded or modified. Neither does the N.T. in any way alter it: indeed it incidentally confirms it by declaring that the magistrate does not bear the sword in vain. Ro 13:4. God claims the life of man, and none can set aside His rights.
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Lamech said to his wives: Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me.
I will require your lifeblood as an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. I will demand an accounting from each man for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man will have his blood shed by man. For man was made in the image of God.
He is the minister of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain. He is the minister of God, an avenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil.
Smith
Murder.
The law of Moses, while it protected the accidental homicide, defined with additional strictness the crime of murder. It prohibited compensation or reprieve of the murderer, or his protection if he took refuge in the refuge city, or even at the altar of Jehovah.
Ex 21:12,14; Le 24:17,21; 1Ki 2:5-6,31
The duty of executing punishment on the murderer is in the law expressly laid on the "revenger of blood;" but the question of guilt was to be previously decided by the Levitical tribunal. In regal times the duty of execution of justice on a murderer seems to have been assumed to some extent by the sovereign, as was also the privilege of pardon.
It was lawful to kill a burglar taken at night in the act, but unlawful to do so after sunrise.
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Death is the punishment for murder.
If a man schemes and kills a man deliberately remove him from my altar and put him to death.
If the thief is caught while breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there will be no blood guiltiness on his account. But if it happens after sunrise, he is guilty of murder. A thief must make up for what he has stolen. If he is unable to do so, he should be sold as a slave to pay for what he stole.
Whoever kills another person must be put to death.
Whoever kills an animal shall replace it, but whoever kills a human being shall be put to death.
King David longed for Absalom once people had consoled him over Amnon's death.
All my relatives have turned against me and are demanding that I hand my son over to them. They want to kill him for murdering his brother. If they do this, I will be left without a son. They will destroy my last hope. They will leave my husband without a son to keep his name alive.
She said: Please pray to Jehovah your God, Your Majesty, so that my relative who is responsible for avenging the death of my son will not commit a greater crime by killing my other son. I promise by the living Jehovah, David replied, your son will not be harmed.
Watsons
MURDER. Among the Hebrews murder was always punished with death; but involuntary homicide, only by banishment. Cities of refuge were appointed for involuntary manslaughter, whither the slayer might retire and continue in safety till the death of the high priest, Nu 35:28. Then the offender was at liberty to return to his own house, if he pleased. A murderer was put to death without remission, and the kinsman of the murdered person might kill him with impunity. Money could not redeem his life: he was dragged away from the altar, if he had there taken refuge. When a dead body was found in the fields of a person slain by a murderer unknown, Moses commanded that the elders and judges of the neighbouring places should resort to the spot, De 21:1-8. The elders of the city nearest to it were to take a heifer which had never yet borne the yoke, and were to lead it into some rude and uncultivated place, which had not been ploughed or sowed, where they were to cut its throat. The priests of the Lord, with the elders and magistrates of the city, were to come near the dead body, and, washing their hands over the heifer that had been slain, were to say, "Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it shed. Lord, be favourable to thy people Israel, and impute not to us this blood, which has been shed in the midst of our country." This ceremony may inform us how much horror they conceived at the crime of murder; and it shows their fear that God might avenge it on the whole country; which was supposed to contract pollution by the blood spilt in it, unless it were expiated, and avenged on him who had occasioned it, if he could be discovered.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Accused murderers must stay in their city of refuge until the death of the chief priest. They may go back to their own property only after his death.
This is what you must do if you find a murder victim lying in a field in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you. If no one knows who committed the murder, your elders and judges must go and measure the distance from the body to each of the neighboring cities. read more. When it is determined which city is nearest the body, the elders from that city must choose a heifer that has never been put to work and never worn a yoke. The elders of that city will bring the heifer down to a river, to a location where the land has not been plowed or planted. At the river they must break the heifer's neck. Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near. Jehovah your God has chosen them to serve him and to bless in the name of Jehovah. They will settle every dispute and every assault. All the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. They will answer: 'Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did we see it. Forgive your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O Jehovah. Do not hold us responsible for the murder of an innocent person.' Forgive them of bloodguilt.