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Commandments thou shalt not kill11/25/2023 The Torah and Hebrew Bible made clear distinctions between the shedding of innocent blood and killing as the due consequence of a crime. Justified killing: due consequence for crime The Torah also instructs that homicidal animals were also to be stoned to death and the carcass reviled. The owner of a bull who was known to have a habit of goring could be put to death if he failed to keep the animal confined and the bull gored a man or woman to death. A man who failed to build a parapet or railing around the roof of his house would incur bloodguilt if someone fell and died. ![]() Responsibility for bloodguilt also extended to areas of gross negligence. So you will purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD. Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O LORD, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent man." And the bloodshed will be atoned for. Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, and they shall declare: "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. If a dead body was found lying in a field, the elders and judges were to carefully determine the distance to the closest town, and the elders of the nearest town were to break a heifer’s neck in a prescribed manner and location. The understanding of bloodguilt also required a procedure to make atonement for unsolved murder. The Torah had the expectation that capital crimes would be investigated thoroughly, and moral guilt was attached to failure to investigate crimes thoroughly or failure to give testimony when a call was made for witnesses. Carrying out the death penalty required the testimony of multiple witnesses putting someone to death on the testimony of a single witness was strictly prohibited. In contrast, if the killing was accidental, the accused person was permitted to flee to a city of refuge where he would be safe from the avenger of blood. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him. If anyone with malice aforethought shoves another or throws something at him intentionally so that he dies or if in hostility he hits him with his fist so that he dies, that person shall be put to death he is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him, he shall put him to death. Or if anyone has a wooden object in his hand that could kill, and he hits someone so that he dies, he is a murderer the murderer shall be put to death. Or if anyone has a stone in his hand that could kill, and he strikes someone so that he dies, he is a murderer the murderer shall be put to death. If a man strikes someone with an iron object so that he dies, he is a murderer the murderer shall be put to death. The Torah portrays murder as a capital crime and describes a number of details in the moral understanding and legal implementation of consequences. In the Talmud, Genesis 9:5 is interpreted as a prohibition against killing oneself, and Genesis 9:6 is “cited in support for the prohibition of abortion.” Ancient understanding and legal implementation Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. The Genesis narrative also portrays the prohibition of shedding innocent blood as an important aspect of God’s covenant with Noah. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. The ancient understanding of guilt that is incurred from the shedding of innocent blood is seen in the Genesis narrative, in which Cain killed his brother Abel out of anger, and the LORD cursed Cain for shedding his brother’s blood.
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