Deuteronomy 15:23

15:23 However, you must not eat its blood; you must pour it out on the ground like water.

Deuteronomy 19:12-13

19:12 The elders of his own city must send for him and remove him from there to deliver him over to the blood avenger ¹  to die. 19:13 You must not pity him, but purge out the blood of the innocent ²  from Israel, so that it may go well with you.

Deuteronomy 21:7

21:7 Then they must proclaim, “Our hands have not spilled this blood, nor have we ³  witnessed the crime. ⁴ 

Deuteronomy 21:9

21:9 In this manner you will purge out the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right before ⁵  the Lord.

Deuteronomy 27:25

27:25 ‘Cursed is the one who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’

¹ tn The גֹאֵל הַדָּם (go’el haddam, “avenger of blood”) would ordinarily be a member of the victim’s family who, after due process of law, was invited to initiate the process of execution (cf. Num 35:16-28). See R. Hubbard, NIDOTTE 1:789-94.

¹ sn Purge out the blood of the innocent. Because of the corporate nature of Israel’s community life, the whole community shared in the guilt of unavenged murder unless and until vengeance occurred. Only this would restore spiritual and moral equilibrium (Num 35:33).

¹ tn Heb “our eyes.” This is a figure of speech known as synecdoche in which the part (the eyes) is put for the whole (the entire person).

² tn Heb “seen”; the implied object (the crime committed) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹ tn Heb “in the eyes of” (so ASV, NASB, NIV).