Deuteronomy 19:4

19:4 Now this is the law pertaining to one who flees there in order to live, ¹  if he has accidentally killed another ²  without hating him at the time of the accident. ³ 

Deuteronomy 19:10-11

19:10 You must not shed innocent blood ⁴  in your land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty. ⁵  19:11 However, suppose a person hates someone else ⁶  and stalks him, attacks him, kills him, ⁷  and then flees to one of these cities.

Exodus 21:12-14

Personal Injuries

21:12 ⁸ “Whoever strikes someone ⁹  so that he dies ¹⁰  must surely be put to death. ¹¹  21:13 But if he does not do it with premeditation, ¹²  but it happens by accident, ¹³  then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee. 21:14 But if a man willfully attacks his neighbor to kill him cunningly, ¹⁴  you will take him even from my altar that he may die.

Exodus 21:20

21:20 “If a man strikes his male servant or his female servant with a staff so that he or she ¹⁵  dies as a result of the blow, ¹⁶  he will surely be punished. ¹⁷ 

Exodus 21:22

21:22 “If men fight and hit a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, ¹⁸  but there is no serious injury, he will surely be punished in accordance with what the woman’s husband demands of him, and he will pay what the court decides. ¹⁹ 

Exodus 21:28

Laws about Animals

21:28 ²⁰ “If an ox ²¹  gores a man or a woman so that either dies, ²²  then the ox must surely ²³  be stoned and its flesh must not be eaten, but the owner of the ox will be acquitted.

Exodus 22:2

22:2 “If a thief is caught ²⁴  breaking in ²⁵  and is struck so that he dies, there will be no blood guilt for him. ²⁶ 

Numbers 35:11

35:11 you must then designate some towns as towns of refuge for you, to which a person who has killed someone unintentionally may flee.

Numbers 35:16

35:16 “But if he hits someone with an iron tool so that he dies, ²⁷  he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death.

Numbers 35:19-34

35:19 The avenger ²⁸  of blood himself must kill the murderer; when he meets him, he must kill him.

35:20 “But if he strikes him out of hatred or throws something at him intentionally ²⁹  so that he dies, 35:21 or with enmity he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death, for he is a murderer. The avenger of blood must kill the murderer when he meets him.

35:22 “But if he strikes him suddenly, without enmity, or throws anything at him unintentionally, 35:23 or with any stone large enough that a man could die, without seeing him, and throws it at him, and he dies, even though he was not his enemy nor sought his harm, 35:24 then the community must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these decisions. 35:25 The community must deliver the slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the community must restore him to the town of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there ³⁰  until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the consecrated oil. 35:26 But if the slayer at any time goes outside the boundary of the town to which he had fled, 35:27 and the avenger of blood finds him outside the borders of the town of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the slayer, he will not be guilty of blood, 35:28 because the slayer ³¹  should have stayed in his town of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the slayer may return to the land of his possessions. 35:29 So these things must be a statutory ordinance ³²  for you throughout your generations, in all the places where you live.

35:30 “Whoever kills any person, the murderer must be put to death by the testimony ³³  of witnesses; but one witness cannot ³⁴  testify against any person to cause him to be put to death. 35:31 Moreover, you must not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death; he must surely be put to death. 35:32 And you must not accept a ransom for anyone who has fled to a town of refuge, to allow him to return home and live on his own land before the death of the high priest. ³⁵ 

35:33 “You must not pollute the land where you live, for blood defiles the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed there, except by the blood of the person who shed it. 35:34 Therefore do not defile the land that you will inhabit, in which I live, for I the Lord live among the Israelites.”

[19:4]  ¹ tn Heb “and this is the word pertaining to the one who kills who flees there and lives.”

[19:4]  ² tn Heb “who strikes his neighbor without knowledge.”

[19:4]  ³ tn Heb “yesterday and a third (day)” (likewise in v. 6). The point is that there was no animosity between the two parties at the time of the accident and therefore no motive for the killing. Cf. NAB “had previously borne no malice”; NRSV “had not been at enmity before.”

[19:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “innocent blood must not be shed.” The Hebrew phrase דָּם נָקִי (dam naqiy) means the blood of a person to whom no culpability or responsibility adheres because what he did was without malice aforethought (HALOT 224 s.v דָּם 4.b).

[19:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “and blood will be upon you” (cf. KJV, ASV); NRSV “thereby bringing bloodguilt upon you.”

[19:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “his neighbor.”

[19:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “rises against him and strikes him fatally.”

[21:12]  ⁸ sn The underlying point of this section remains vital today: The people of God must treat all human life as sacred.

[21:12]  ⁹ tn The construction uses a Hiphil participle in construct with the noun for “man” (or person as is understood in a law for the nation): “the one striking [of] a man.” This is a casus pendens (independent nominative absolute); it indicates the condition or action that involves further consequence (GKC 361 §116.w).

[21:12]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew word וָמֵת (vamet) is a Qal perfect with vav consecutive; it means “and he dies” and not “and killed him” (which require another stem). Gesenius notes that this form after a participle is the equivalent of a sentence representing a contingent action (GKC 333 §112.n). The word shows the result of the action in the opening participle. It is therefore a case of murder or manslaughter.

[21:12]  ¹¹ sn See A. Phillips, “Another Look at Murder,” JJS 28 (1977): 105-26.

[21:13]  ¹² tn Heb “if he does not lie in wait” (NASB similar).

[21:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “and God brought into his hand.” The death is unintended, its circumstances outside human control.

[21:14]  ¹⁴ tn The word עָרְמָה (’ormah) is problematic. It could mean with prior intent, which would be connected with the word in Prov 8:5, 12 which means “understanding” (or “prudence” – fully aware of the way things are). It could be connected also to an Arabic word for “enemy” which would indicate this was done with malice or evil intentions (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 270). The use here seems parallel to the one in Josh 9:4, an instance involving intentionality and clever deception.

[21:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “so that he”; the words “or she” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “under his hand.”

[21:20]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “will be avenged” (how is not specified).

[21:22]  ¹⁸ tn This line has occasioned a good deal of discussion. It may indicate that the child was killed, as in a miscarriage; or it may mean that there was a premature birth. The latter view is taken here because of the way the whole section is written: (1) “her children come out” reflects a birth and not the loss of children, (2) there is no serious damage, and (3) payment is to be set for any remuneration. The word אָסוֹן (’ason) is translated “serious damage.” The word was taken in Mekilta to mean “death.” U. Cassuto says the point of the phrase is that neither the woman or the children that are born die (Exodus, 275). But see among the literature on this: M. G. Kline, “Lex Talionis and the Human Fetus,” JETS 20 (1977): 193-201; W. House, “Miscarriage or Premature Birth: Additional Thoughts on Exodus 21:22-25,” WTJ 41 (1978): 108-23; S. E. Loewenstamm, “Exodus XXI 22-25,” VT 27 (1977): 352-60.

[21:22]  ¹⁹ tn The word בִּפְלִלִים (biflilim) means “with arbitrators.” The point then seems to be that the amount of remuneration for damages that was fixed by the husband had to be approved by the courts. S. R. Driver mentions an alternative to this unusual reading presented by Budde, reading בנפלים as “untimely birth” (Exodus, 219). See also E. A. Speiser, “The Stem PLL in Hebrew,” JBL 82 (1963): 301-6.

[21:28]  ²⁰ sn The point that this section of the laws makes is that one must ensure the safety of others by controlling the circumstances.

[21:28]  ²¹ tn Traditionally “ox,” but “bull” would also be suitable. The term may refer to one of any variety of large cattle.

[21:28]  ²² tn Heb “and he dies”; KJV “that they die”; NAB, NASB “to death.”

[21:28]  ²³ tn The text uses סָקוֹל יִסָּקֵל (saqol yissaqel), a Qal infinitive absolute with a Niphal imperfect. The infinitive intensifies the imperfect, which here has an obligatory nuance or is a future of instruction.

[22:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “found” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

[22:2]  ²⁵ tn The word בַּמַּחְתֶּרֶת (bammakhteret) means “digging through” the walls of a house (usually made of mud bricks). The verb is used only a few times and has the meaning of dig in (as into houses) or row hard (as in Jonah 1:13).

[22:2]  ²⁶ tn The text has “there is not to him bloods.” When the word “blood” is put in the plural, it refers to bloodshed, or the price of blood that is shed, i.e., blood guiltiness.

[35:16]  ²⁷ tn the verb is the preterite of “die.” The sentence has :“if…he strikes him and he dies.” The vav (ו) consecutive is showing the natural result of the blow.

[35:19]  ²⁸ tn The participle גֹּאֵל (go’el) is the one who protects the family by seeking vengeance for a crime. This is the same verb used for levirate marriages and other related customs.

[35:20]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew text is more vivid: “by lying in wait.”

[35:25]  ³⁰ tn Heb “in it.”

[35:28]  ³¹ tn Heb “he.”

[35:29]  ³² tn Heb “a statute of judgment” (so KJV).

[35:30]  ³³ tn Heb “ at the mouth of”; the metonymy stresses it is at their report.

[35:30]  ³⁴ tn The verb should be given the nuance of imperfect of potentiality.

[35:32]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the priest.” The Greek and the Syriac have “high priest.” The present translation, along with many English versions, uses “high priest” as a clarification.