Does the Bible Ever Justify Murder?
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Its wording is simple and clear: “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13).
The sixth of the Ten Commandments given to us by God in Exodus 20 is among the “shall nots” included in God’s list of righteous living, a summary of how we are to please God and live in perfect peace with others around us.
The word “murder” in the original Hebrew is rasah, which most scholars believe translates to the premeditated, deliberate act. It’s the same word used in Judges 20:4, when wicked men murdered the concubine of a man, or in Psalm 94:6, when the psalmist praises an avenging God who judges oppressive evildoers that murder orphans and widows.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines murder as “unlawfully and unjustifiably killing a person,” while other definitions often include “malice” or “premeditation” with this act.
Yet Scripture tells us God himself sometimes kills people, striking them down for evil deeds; God’s people sometimes kill people, as well. This begs the question: Does the Bible ever justify murder?
Murder Versus Killing
There is a big difference between murder and killing when it comes to taking the life of another human being. Killing can be lawful or unlawful, while murder is always unlawful. For example, accidentally taking the life of a person is usually not considered murder, nor is a killing performed in self-defense, in capital punishment (state execution) or in the course of war, such as the killing of enemies. However, deceptive, planned, stealthy, intentional criminal murder is a different thing entirely. That is considered to be an evil, and it is outlawed by God as well as by nations around the world.
While some translations of the Bible, such as the King James Version, phrase the sixth commandment a bit differently, stating, “Thou shalt not kill,” the meaning of “kill” from the original translation points not to killing in general but to murder.
Does God Murder?
No, God did not and does not murder. Murder is unlawful and unjustifiable, but God is the opposite of both of these terms. God is perfect and the very essence of love. As Deuteronomy 32:4 proclaims, “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. Further, 1 John 4:8 states, “God is love,” and Isaiah 33:22 describes, “For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us.”
The creator of the universe, who made all things and all people, who is himself both the law and the love coursing throughout creation, cannot stand apart from lawfulness, nor can he ever do or be or say anything unrighteous or unjustifiable.
Therefore, murder can never apply to God, ever.
Does God Kill?
However, there are indeed well justified times when God has killed people. For example, when God killed all people on the earth except Noah and his family, he was perfectly justified in doing so. God is omniscient and all-powerful, and he knows the truth in our hearts. Genesis 6:5 tells us God looked into the hearts of the people on earth and saw their utter wickedness, so he decided to wipe out evil humanity and start over.
The Bible tells us God ordered the Israelites to completely destroy the Canaanites. This was because he looked into the hearts of the Canaanites and saw their complete evil — how they do detestable things, worship false gods, and even “burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods” (Deuteronomy 12:31).
The Bible tells us God also killed the two sons of the prophet Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, both described in Scripture as “scoundrels” who “had no regard for the Lord” (1 Samuel 2:12).
Other times, God’s decision to kill people doesn’t make as much sense to us — for example, when he killed Uzzah for touching the Ark of the Covenant when the oxen stumbled while carrying it (2 Samuel 6:6-7) or Onan for “wasting” his semen instead of impregnating a woman (Genesis 38:9-10).
Truthfully, though, it doesn’t need to make sense to us, for we are not the perfect Law and Creator — only God is. We might not understand why something violates God’s laws or wishes, and that’s OK. But we must accept it, for God’s way is the only way. And we must accept that when he kills, it’s justified — never murder.
Does That Mean We Are Allowed to Kill if We Think It Is Justified?
But just because we follow God and belong to God does not mean we are permitted to kill when we believe someone is violating God’s laws. As the apostle Paul writes in Romans 12:19, “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” And as he adds in Romans 13:9-10, “The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
Jesus tells us the two greatest commandments are to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and second, to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-40). He also tells us when we encounter an evil person that we should not resist them, that if they slap us on the right cheek, “turn to them the other cheek also” (Matthew 5:38-40).
Killing our neighbor is not loving our neighbor, nor is it turning the other cheek. We should leave vengeance to the Lord.
Is Anger on Par with Murder?
Indeed, Jesus took all of this a step further, instructing his followers that hateful, wrathful anger is uncomfortably close to the sin of murder. That is because they stem from the same root: hatred. In his Sermon on the Mount, he reminded the people that God instructed us not to murder, and that anyone who murders will be subject to God’s judgment. “But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell” (Matthew 5:22). That is, hatred in the heart — whether it results in murder or an angry word — stems from the same place of evil. In God’s eyes, they are the same.
This concept is echoed elsewhere in Scripture, such as in Psalm 37:8, which reminds us, “Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret — it leads only to evil.” And John wrote, “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him” (1 John 3:15).
Murder is an evil. In Revelation 21:8, we can find murderers included among the list of other evildoers condemned to damnation: “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars — they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.”
It is perhaps tempting, when wronged or when evil thoughts like jealousy rise up, to consider murder. It is even perhaps tempting to consider murder when one encounters evil, maybe in an attempt to wipe that evil out. But we are commanded never to murder, ever. And the Bible never justifies murder in any form. Period.
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