Murder

The Old Testament. Although the Israelites did not have a term that precisely fits our present-day idea of murder, they differentiated among killing, manslaughter, and murder in their legal terminology.

The Term for Murder in the Sixth Commandment. The sixth commandment ("you shall not murder" Exod 20:13 ; Deut 5:17 ) has been misunderstood because of an ambiguity in terminology. The Hebrew word that was used in this case for "kill" (or murder) was the somewhat rare term rasah [j;x'r] (derivatives can be found with the meaning of shatter [ Psalm 42:11 ] or slaughter [ Eze 21:27 ]). Although its exact meaning has defied explanation, in other contexts it could refer to killing that was inherently evil ( Judges 20:4 ; Job 24:14 ; Psalm 94:6 ; Isa 1:21 ; Hosea 6:9 ). It was also listed in abuses of the covenant community ( Jer 7:9 ; Hosea 4:2 ) and in lists of curses ( Deut 27:24-25 ). Jezebel committed murder (rasah [j;x'r]) against the prophets ( 1 Kings 18:13 ), as did Ahab against Naboth ( 1 Kings 21:19 ) and Simeon and Levi against the Shechemites ( Gen 34:26 ). However, the same term could also have applied to unintentional manslaughter ( Deut 4:41 ; 19:3-6 ; Joshua 20:3 ), blood vengeance ( Numbers 35:27 Numbers 35:30 ), the legal execution of a criminal ( Num 35:30 ), attempted assassination ( 2 Kings 6:32 ), and on one occasion it was used for the figurative killing of humans by animals ( Prov 22:13 ).