46 Bible Verses about Killing

"You shall not murder.

You must not murder.

For your lifeblood I will surely exact punishment, from every living creature I will exact punishment. From each person I will exact punishment for the life of the individual since the man was his relative. "Whoever sheds human blood, by other humans must his blood be shed; for in God's image God has made humankind."

for the life of every living thing is in the blood. So I myself have assigned it to you on the altar to make atonement for your lives, for the blood makes atonement by means of the life.

"Whoever sheds human blood, by other humans must his blood be shed; for in God's image God has made humankind."

"Whoever strikes someone so that he dies must surely be put to death.

"You must not allow a sorceress to live. "Whoever has sexual relations with a beast must surely be put to death. "Whoever sacrifices to a god other than the Lord alone must be utterly destroyed.

If a matter is too difficult for you to judge -- bloodshed, legal claim, or assault -- matters of controversy in your villages -- you must leave there and go up to the place the Lord your God chooses. You will go to the Levitical priests and the judge in office in those days and seek a solution; they will render a verdict. You must then do as they have determined at that place the Lord chooses. Be careful to do just as you are taught.read more.
You must do what you are instructed, and the verdict they pronounce to you, without fail. Do not deviate right or left from what they tell you. The person who pays no attention to the priest currently serving the Lord your God there, or to the verdict -- that person must die, so that you may purge evil from Israel. Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and not be so presumptuous again.

If a person has a stubborn, rebellious son who pays no attention to his father or mother, and they discipline him to no avail, his father and mother must seize him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his city. They must declare to the elders of his city, "Our son is stubborn and rebellious and pays no attention to what we say -- he is a glutton and drunkard."read more.
Then all the men of his city must stone him to death. In this way you will purge out wickedness from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid.

the men of her city must bring the young woman to the door of her father's house and stone her to death, for she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by behaving like a prostitute while living in her father's house. In this way you will purge evil from among you. If a man is caught having sexual relations with a married woman both the man who had relations with the woman and the woman herself must die; in this way you will purge evil from Israel. If a virgin is engaged to a man and another man meets her in the city and has sexual relations with her,read more.
you must bring the two of them to the gate of that city and stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry out though in the city and the man because he violated his neighbor's fianc?e; in this way you will purge evil from among you. But if the man came across the engaged woman in the field and overpowered her and raped her, then only the rapist must die. You must not do anything to the young woman -- she has done nothing deserving of death. This case is the same as when someone attacks another person and murders him, for the man met her in the field and the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her.

his body must not remain all night on the tree; instead you must make certain you bury him that same day, for the one who is left exposed on a tree is cursed by God. You must not defile your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

But if he does not do it with premeditation, but it happens by accident, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.

Then Moses selected three cities in the Transjordan, toward the east. Anyone who accidentally killed someone without hating him at the time of the accident could flee to one of those cities and be safe.

you must set apart for yourselves three cities in the middle of your land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession. You shall build a roadway and divide into thirds the whole extent of your land that the Lord your God is providing as your inheritance; anyone who kills another person should flee to the closest of these cities. Now this is the law pertaining to one who flees there in order to live, if he has accidentally killed another without hating him at the time of the accident.read more.
Suppose he goes with someone else to the forest to cut wood and when he raises the ax to cut the tree, the ax head flies loose from the handle and strikes his fellow worker so hard that he dies. The person responsible may then flee to one of these cities to save himself. Otherwise the blood avenger will chase after the killer in the heat of his anger, eventually overtake him, and kill him, though this is not a capital case since he did not hate him at the time of the accident. Therefore, I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities. If the Lord your God enlarges your borders as he promised your ancestors and gives you all the land he pledged to them, and then you are careful to observe all these commandments I am giving you today (namely, to love the Lord your God and to always walk in his ways), then you must add three more cities to these three. You must not shed innocent blood in your land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty. However, suppose a person hates someone else and stalks him, attacks him, kills him, and then flees to one of these cities. The elders of his own city must send for him and remove him from there to deliver him over to the blood avenger to die. You must not pity him, but purge out the blood of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well with you.

The city and all that is in it must be set apart for the Lord, except for Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house, because she hid the spies we sent.

When you approach a city to wage war against it, offer it terms of peace. If it accepts your terms and submits to you, all the people found in it will become your slaves. If it does not accept terms of peace but makes war with you, then you are to lay siege to it.read more.
The Lord your God will deliver it over to you and you must kill every single male by the sword. However, the women, little children, cattle, and anything else in the city -- all its plunder -- you may take for yourselves as spoil. You may take from your enemies the plunder that the Lord your God has given you. This is how you are to deal with all those cities located far from you, those that do not belong to these nearby nations.

"Blood guilt will be accounted to any man from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox or a lamb or a goat inside the camp or outside the camp, but has not brought it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent to present it as an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord. He has shed blood, so that man will be cut off from the midst of his people. This is so that the Israelites will bring their sacrifices that they are sacrificing in the open field to the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent to the priest and sacrifice them there as peace offering sacrifices to the Lord.read more.
The priest is to splash the blood on the altar of the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, and offer the fat up in smoke for a soothing aroma to the Lord. So they must no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat demons, acting like prostitutes by going after them. This is to be a perpetual statute for them throughout their generations.

On the other hand, you may slaughter and eat meat as you please when the Lord your God blesses you in all your villages. Both the ritually pure and impure may eat it, whether it is a gazelle or an ibex. However, you must not eat blood -- pour it out on the ground like water.

If you happen to notice a bird's nest along the road, whether in a tree or on the ground, and there are chicks or eggs with the mother bird sitting on them, you must not take the mother from the young. You must be sure to let the mother go, but you may take the young for yourself. Do this so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.