Genesis 9:5-6

9:5 For your lifeblood ¹  I will surely exact punishment, ²  from ³  every living creature I will exact punishment. From each person ⁴  I will exact punishment for the life of the individual ⁵  since the man was his relative. ⁶ 

9:6 “Whoever sheds human blood, ⁷ 

by other humans ⁸ 

must his blood be shed;

for in God’s image ⁹ 

God ¹⁰  has made humankind.”

Exodus 21:14

21:14 But if a man willfully attacks his neighbor to kill him cunningly, ¹¹  you will take him even from my altar that he may die.

Deuteronomy 19:11-13

19:11 However, suppose a person hates someone else ¹²  and stalks him, attacks him, kills him, ¹³  and then flees to one of these cities. 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 ¹⁴  to die. 19:13 You must not pity him, but purge out the blood of the innocent ¹⁵  from Israel, so that it may go well with you.

Deuteronomy 19:2

19:2 you must set apart for yourselves three cities ¹⁶  in the middle of your land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession.

Deuteronomy 12:13

12:13 Make sure you do not offer burnt offerings in any place you wish,

Deuteronomy 12:1

The Central Sanctuary

12:1 These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to obey as long as you live in the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, ¹⁷  has given you to possess. ¹⁸ 

Deuteronomy 2:28-34

2:28 Sell me food for cash ¹⁹  so that I can eat and sell me water to drink. ²⁰  Just allow me to go through on foot, 2:29 just as the descendants of Esau who live at Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan to the land the Lord our God is giving us.” 2:30 But King Sihon of Heshbon was unwilling to allow us to pass near him because the Lord our ²¹  God had made him obstinate ²²  and stubborn ²³  so that he might deliver him over to you ²⁴  this very day. 2:31 The Lord said to me, “Look! I have already begun to give over Sihon and his land to you. Start right now to take his land as your possession.” 2:32 When Sihon and all his troops ²⁵  emerged to encounter us in battle at Jahaz, ²⁶  2:33 the Lord our God delivered him over to us and we struck him down, along with his sons ²⁷  and everyone else. ²⁸  2:34 At that time we seized all his cities and put every one of them ²⁹  under divine judgment, ³⁰  including even the women and children; we left no survivors.

Psalms 51:14

51:14 Rescue me from the guilt of murder, ³¹  O God, the God who delivers me!

Then my tongue will shout for joy because of your deliverance. ³² 

[9:5]  ¹ tn Again the text uses apposition to clarify what kind of blood is being discussed: “your blood, [that is] for your life.” See C. L. Dewar, “The Biblical Use of the Term ‘Blood,’” JTS 4 (1953): 204-8.

[9:5]  ² tn The word “punishment” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification. The verb דָּרָשׁ (darash) means “to require, to seek, to ask for, to exact.” Here it means that God will exact punishment for the taking of a life. See R. Mawdsley, “Capital Punishment in Gen. 9:6,” CentBib 18 (1975): 20-25.

[9:5]  ³ tn Heb “from the hand of,” which means “out of the hand of” or “out of the power of” and is nearly identical in sense to the preposition מִן (min) alone.

[9:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “and from the hand of the man.” The article has a generic function, indicating the class, i.e., humankind.

[9:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “of the man.”

[9:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “from the hand of a man, his brother.” The point is that God will require the blood of someone who kills, since the person killed is a relative (“brother”) of the killer. The language reflects Noah’s situation (after the flood everyone would be part of Noah’s extended family), but also supports the concept of the brotherhood of humankind. According to the Genesis account the entire human race descended from Noah.

[9:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “the blood of man.”

[9:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “by man,” a generic term here for other human beings.

[9:6]  ⁹ sn See the notes on the words “humankind” and “likeness” in Gen 1:26, as well as J. Barr, “The Image of God in the Book of Genesis – A Study of Terminology,” BJRL 51 (1968/69): 11-26.

[9:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:14]  ¹¹ 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.

[19:11]  ¹² tn Heb “his neighbor.”

[19:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “rises against him and strikes him fatally.”

[19:12]  ¹⁴ 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.

[19:13]  ¹⁵ 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).

[19:2]  ¹⁶ sn These three cities, later designated by Joshua, were Kedesh of Galilee, Shechem, and Hebron (Josh 20:7-9).

[12:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “fathers.”

[12:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “you must be careful to obey in the land the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days which you live in the land.” This adverbial statement modifies “to obey,” not “to possess,” so the order in the translation has been rearranged to make this clear.

[2:28]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “silver.”

[2:28]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and water for silver give to me so that I may drink.”

[2:30]  ²¹ tc The translation follows the LXX in reading the first person pronoun. The MT, followed by many English versions, has a second person masculine singular pronoun, “your.”

[2:30]  ²² tn Heb “hardened his spirit” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV “made his spirit stubborn.”

[2:30]  ²³ tn Heb “made his heart obstinate” (so KJV, NASB); NRSV “made his heart defiant.”

[2:30]  ²⁴ tn Heb “into your hand.”

[2:32]  ²⁵ tn Heb “people.”

[2:32]  ²⁶ sn Jahaz. This is probably Khirbet el-Medeiyineh. See J. Dearman, “The Levitical Cities of Reuben and Moabite Toponymy,” BASOR 276 (1984): 55-57.

[2:33]  ²⁷ tc The translation follows the Qere or marginal reading; the Kethib (consonantal text) has the singular, “his son.”

[2:33]  ²⁸ tn Heb “all his people.”

[2:34]  ²⁹ tn Heb “every city of men.” This apparently identifies the cities as inhabited.

[2:34]  ³⁰ tn Heb “under the ban” (נַחֲרֵם, nakharem). The verb employed is חָרַם (kharam, usually in the Hiphil) and the associated noun is חֵרֶם (kherem). See J. Naudé, NIDOTTE, 2:276-77, and, for a more thorough discussion, Susan Niditch, War in the Hebrew Bible, 28-77.

[51:14]  ³¹ tn Heb “from bloodshed.” “Bloodshed” here stands by metonymy for the guilt which it produces.

[51:14]  ³² tn Heb “my tongue will shout for joy your deliverance.” Another option is to take the prefixed verbal form as a jussive, “may my tongue shout for joy.” However, the pattern in vv. 12-15 appears to be prayer/request (see vv. 12, 14a, 15a) followed by promise/vow (see vv. 13, 14b, 15b).