46 Bible Verses about Killing
Most Relevant Verses
I will require the life of every animal and every man for your life and your blood. I will require the life of each man’s brother for a man’s life. Whoever sheds man’s blood,
his blood will be shed by man,
for God made man in His image.
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for your lives, since it is the lifeblood that makes atonement.
Whoever sheds man’s blood,
his blood will be shed by man,
for God made man in His image.
“You must not allow a sorceress to live. “Whoever has sexual intercourse with an animal must be put to death. “Whoever sacrifices to any gods, except the Lord alone, is to be set apart for destruction.
“If a case is too difficult for you—concerning bloodshed, lawsuits, or assaults—cases disputed at your gates, you must go up to the place the Lord your God chooses. You are to go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who presides at that time. Ask, and they will give you a verdict in the case. You must abide by the verdict they give you at the place the Lord chooses. Be careful to do exactly as they instruct you. read more.
You must abide by the instruction they give you and the verdict they announce to you. Do not turn to the right or the left from the decision they declare to you. The person who acts arrogantly, refusing to listen either to the priest who stands there serving the Lord your God or to the judge, must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. Then all the people will hear about it, be afraid, and no longer behave arrogantly.
“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father or mother and doesn’t listen to them even after they discipline him, his father and mother must take hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown. They will say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he doesn’t obey us. He’s a glutton and a drunkard.’ read more.
Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. You must purge the evil from you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.
they will bring the woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from you. “If a man is discovered having sexual relations with another man’s wife, both the man who had sex with the woman and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. If there is a young woman who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and has sex with her, read more.
you must take the two of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death—the young woman because she did not cry out in the city and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s fiancée. You must purge the evil from you. But if the man encounters an engaged woman in the open country, and he seizes and rapes her, only the man who raped her must die. Do nothing to the young woman, because she is not guilty of an offense deserving death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him. When he found her in the field, the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her.
you are not to leave his corpse on the tree overnight but are to bury him that day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
But if he didn’t intend any harm, and yet God caused it to happen by his hand, I will appoint a place for you where he may flee.
Then Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan to the east. Someone could flee there who committed manslaughter, killing his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him. He could flee to one of these cities and stay alive:
you are to set apart three cities for yourselves within the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess. You are to determine the distances and divide the land the Lord your God is granting you as an inheritance into three regions, so that anyone who commits manslaughter can flee to these cities. “Here is the law concerning a case of someone who kills a person and flees there to save his life, having killed his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him: read more.
If he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings the ax to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, that person may flee to one of these cities and live. Otherwise, the avenger of blood in the heat of his anger might pursue the one who committed manslaughter, overtake him because the distance is great, and strike him dead. Yet he did not deserve to die, since he did not previously hate his neighbor. This is why I am commanding you to set apart three cities for yourselves. If the Lord your God enlarges your territory as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land He promised to give them— provided you keep every one of these commands I am giving you today and follow them, loving the Lord your God and walking in His ways at all times—you are to add three more cities to these three. In this way, innocent blood will not be shed, and you will not become guilty of bloodshed in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. But if someone hates his neighbor, lies in ambush for him, attacks him, and strikes him fatally, and flees to one of these cities, the elders of his city must send for him, take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood and he will die. You must not look on him with pity but purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, and you will prosper.
But the city and everything in it are set apart to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and everyone with her in the house will live, because she hid the men we sent.
“When you approach a city to fight against it, you must make an offer of peace. If it accepts your offer of peace and opens its gates to you, all the people found in it will become forced laborers for you and serve you. However, if it does not make peace with you but wages war against you, lay siege to it. read more.
When the Lord your God hands it over to you, you must strike down all its males with the sword. But you may take the women, children, animals, and whatever else is in the city—all its spoil—as plunder. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies that the Lord your God has given you. This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and are not among the cities of these nations.
Anyone from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox, sheep, or goat in the camp, or slaughters it outside the camp, instead of bringing it to the entrance to the tent of meeting to present it as an offering to the Lord before His tabernacle—that person will be considered guilty. He has shed blood and must be cut off from his people. This is so the Israelites will bring to the Lord the sacrifices they have been offering in the open country. They are to bring them to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting and offer them as fellowship sacrifices to the Lord. read more.
The priest will then sprinkle the blood on the Lord’s altar at the entrance to the tent of meeting and burn the fat as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. They must no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat-demons that they have prostituted themselves with. This will be a permanent statute for them throughout their generations.
“But whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, according to the blessing the Lord your God has given you. Those who are clean or unclean may eat it, as they would a gazelle or deer, but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.
“If you come across a bird’s nest with chicks or eggs, either in a tree or on the ground along the road, and the mother is sitting on the chicks or eggs, you must not take the mother along with the young. You may take the young for yourself, but be sure to let the mother go free, so that you may prosper and live long.
Topics on Killing
Animals Killing
1 Kings 13:24When he left,
Death Penalty For Killing
Genesis 9:6
his blood will be shed by man,
for God made man in His image.
Famine Killing
Jeremiah 38:2“This is what the Lord says: ‘Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine, and plague, but whoever surrenders to the Chaldeans will live. He will keep his life like the spoils of war and will live.’
God Killing
Deuteronomy 32:39
there is no God but Me.
I bring death and I give life;
I wound and I heal.
No one can rescue anyone from My hand.
God Killing All People
Genesis 6:7Then the Lord said, “I will wipe off from the face of the earth mankind, whom I created, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.”
God Killing Individuals
Genesis 38:7Now Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the Lord’s sight, and the Lord put him to death.
Killing Brothers
Judges 8:18-19He asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?”
“They were like you,” they said. “Each resembled the son of a king.”
Killing Disciples
Revelation 6:9When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the people
Killing Domesticated Animals
Exodus 12:29Now at midnight the Lord struck every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and every firstborn of the livestock.
Killing Israelites
Esther 3:6And when he learned of Mordecai’s ethnic identity, Haman decided not to do away with
Killing Kings
2 Samuel 1:14David questioned him, “How is it that you were not afraid to lift your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?”
Killing Many People
Ezekiel 9:9He answered me: “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of bloodshed,
Killing Named Individuals
Genesis 4:8Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”
Killing One Another
Judges 7:22When Gideon’s men blew their 300 trumpets, the Lord set the swords of each man in the army against each other. They fled to Beth-shittah in the direction of Zererah as far as the border of Abel-meholah
Killing Priests
1 Samuel 22:17Then the king ordered the guards standing by him, “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord
Killing Prophets
1 Kings 18:4and took 100 prophets and hid them, 50 men to a cave, and provided them with food and water when Jezebel
Killing Sacrifices
Exodus 12:6You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.
Killing Sons And Daughters
2 Samuel 13:30While they were on the way, a report reached David: “Absalom struck down all the king’s sons; not even one of them survived!”
Killing The Innocent
Lamentations 4:13מ Mem
and the guilt of her priests,
who shed the blood of the righteous
within her.
Killing Whole Families
Genesis 32:11Please rescue me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid of him; otherwise, he may come and attack me, the mothers, and their children.
Killing Wild Animals
Nahum 2:13
This is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.
I will make your chariots go up in smoke
and the sword will devour your young lions.
I will cut off your prey from the earth,
and the sound of your messengers
will never be heard again.
Killing Will Happen
2 Samuel 17:9He’s probably already hiding in one of the caves
Killing Within Israel
Judges 8:17He also tore down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.
Restraints From Killing
Genesis 4:15Then the Lord replied to him, “In that case,
Rules About Killing Animals
Exodus 13:13You must redeem every firstborn of a donkey with a flock animal, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. However, you must redeem every firstborn among your sons.