Genesis 4:9-10

4:9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” ¹  And he replied, “I don’t know! Am I my brother’s guardian?” ²  4:10 But the Lord said, “What have you done? ³  The voice ⁴  of your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!

Leviticus 19:16

19:16 You must not go about as a slanderer among your people. ⁵  You must not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is at stake. ⁶  I am the Lord.

Numbers 35:31-33

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. ⁷ 

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.

Deuteronomy 21:1-9

Laws Concerning Unsolved Murder

21:1 If a homicide victim ⁸  should be found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you, ⁹  and no one knows who killed ¹⁰  him, 21:2 your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse. ¹¹  21:3 Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse ¹²  must take from the herd a heifer that has not been worked – that has never pulled with the yoke – 21:4 and bring the heifer down to a wadi with flowing water, ¹³  to a valley that is neither plowed nor sown. ¹⁴  There at the wadi they are to break the heifer’s neck. 21:5 Then the Levitical priests ¹⁵  will approach (for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name, ¹⁶  and to decide ¹⁷  every judicial verdict ¹⁸ ) 21:6 and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse ¹⁹  must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. ²⁰  21:7 Then they must proclaim, “Our hands have not spilled this blood, nor have we ²¹  witnessed the crime. ²²  21:8 Do not blame ²³  your people Israel whom you redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold them accountable for the bloodshed of an innocent person.” ²⁴  Then atonement will be made for the bloodshed. 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 ²⁵  the Lord.

Psalms 9:12

9:12 For the one who takes revenge against murderers took notice of the oppressed; ²⁶ 

he did not overlook ²⁷  their cry for help ²⁸ 

Matthew 23:35

23:35 so that on you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, ²⁹  whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

[4:9]  ¹ sn Where is Abel your brother? Again the Lord confronts a guilty sinner with a rhetorical question (see Gen 3:9-13), asking for an explanation of what has happened.

[4:9]  ² tn Heb “The one guarding my brother [am] I?”

[4:10]  ³ sn What have you done? Again the Lord’s question is rhetorical (see Gen 3:13), condemning Cain for his sin.

[4:10]  ⁴ tn The word “voice” is a personification; the evidence of Abel’s shed blood condemns Cain, just as a human eyewitness would testify in court. For helpful insights, see G. von Rad, Biblical Interpretations in Preaching; and L. Morris, “The Biblical Use of the Term ‘Blood,’” JTS 6 (1955/56): 77-82.

[19:16]  ⁵ tn The term רָכִיל (rakhil) is traditionally rendered “slanderer” here (so NASB, NIV, NRSV; see also J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 304, 316), but the exact meaning is uncertain (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129). It is sometimes related to I רָכַל (“to go about as a trader [or “merchant”]”; BDB 940 s.v. רָכַל), and taken to refer to cutthroat business dealings, but there may be a II רָכַל, the meaning of which is dubious (HALOT 1237 s.v. II *רכל). Some would render it “to go about as a spy.”

[19:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “You shall not stand on the blood of your neighbor.” This part of the verse is also difficult to interpret. The rendering here suggests that one will not allow a neighbor to be victimized, whether in court (cf. v. 15) or in any other situation (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129).

[35:32]  ⁷ 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.

[21:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “slain [one].” The term חָלָל (khalal) suggests something other than a natural death (cf. Num 19:16; 23:24; Jer 51:52; Ezek 26:15; 30:24; 31:17-18).

[21:1]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew text includes “to possess it,” but this has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “struck,” but in context a fatal blow is meant; cf. NLT “who committed the murder.”

[21:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “surrounding the slain [one].”

[21:3]  ¹² tn Heb “slain [one].”

[21:4]  ¹³ tn The combination “a wadi with flowing water” is necessary because a wadi (נַחַל, nakhal) was ordinarily a dry stream or riverbed. For this ritual, however, a perennial stream must be chosen so that there would be fresh, rushing water.

[21:4]  ¹⁴ sn The unworked heifer, fresh stream, and uncultivated valley speak of ritual purity – of freedom from human contamination.

[21:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the priests, the sons of Levi.”

[21:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “in the name of the Lord.” See note on Deut 10:8. The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[21:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “by their mouth.”

[21:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “every controversy and every blow.”

[21:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “slain [one].”

[21:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “wadi,” a seasonal watercourse through a valley.

[21:7]  ²¹ 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).

[21:7]  ²² tn Heb “seen”; the implied object (the crime committed) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:8]  ²³ tn Heb “Atone for.”

[21:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and do not place innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.”

[21:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in the eyes of” (so ASV, NASB, NIV).

[9:12]  ²⁶ tn Heb “for the one who seeks shed blood remembered them.” The idiomatic expression “to seek shed blood” seems to carry the idea “to seek payment/restitution for one’s shed blood.” The plural form דָּמִים (damim, “shed blood”) occurs only here as the object of דָּרַשׁ (darash); the singular form דָּם (dam, “blood”) appears with the verb in Gen 9:5; 42:22; Ezek 33:6. “Them,” the pronominal object of the verb “remembered,” refers to the oppressed, mentioned specifically in the next line, so the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:12]  ²⁷ tn Heb “did not forget.”

[9:12]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the cry for help of the oppressed.” In this context the “oppressed” are the psalmist and those he represents, whom the hostile nations have threatened.

[23:35]  ²⁹ sn Spelling of this name (Βαραχίου, Baraciou) varies among the English versions: “Barachiah” (RSV, NRSV); “Berechiah” (NASB); “Berachiah” (NIV).