Classic KJV - Proverbs 28:17

All killing is not the same. People are not insects, birds, or animals. The text specifies the type of blood being shed—human blood. Unlike the Darwinian, Hindu, or Animist perspectives, the Bible puts an infinite value on individual human life, but not on other living beings. Human blood is not animal blood. Mankind is unique, made in the image of God. Therefore, an attack on an innocent human being is akin to an attack on God Himself.

Innocence and Guilt

What’s crucial here: There’s an enormous difference between killing an innocent human and executing a guilty one. The text describes one who is laden with the guilt of human blood, an inescapable burden. Guilt is described as an invisible burden or a load to be carried. “Kill” is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “to cause the death of or slay another.” “Manslaughter” is defined as “the killing of a human being by another when unlawful...but without malice.” And “Murder” is defined as “the unlawful and malicious or premeditated killing of another person.” The “malice” makes all the difference.

Murder versus Manslaughter

What makes murder unique? Why does murder warrant the death penalty, whereas manslaughter or accidental killing do not? Murder is motivated by hatred. It is not accidental, but premeditated. It’s that deliberate, arrogant choice that’s evil in God’s eyes. He commands that those who act from evil intent be terminated. They should be removed from the earth. Those convicted of first degree murder should be executed; they should not be sent to life in prison at taxpayers’ expense.

Murder Attacks God

The death penalty for murderers was first given by God to Noah, before the flood, because of the widespread lust and savagery. After the flood, capital punishment for murder was the most significant command in God’s first covenant with man, the “Noahide” covenant: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God, He [God] made man.” See the context in Genesis 9:5-6. God’s agreement was that He’d never again wipe out all mankind.

God loves human beings! God hates the destruction of man. God forbids murder. He has set the highest penalty—death to the killer—against arrogantly killing a fellow human, whether the killer, whether the killer was a man or an animal. God puts the killing of humans under His most severe restraint. In the Bible, He often condones and even commands killing, but He condemns killing from selfishness.

Repeated Often for Emphasis

God’s command to execute murderers is repeated an incredible 13 times in the Mosaic Law. I have boldfaced the command for capital punishment.

He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. Exodus 21:12

If, however, a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, so as to kill him craftily, you are to take him even from My altar, that he may die. Exodus 21:14

If a man takes the life of any human being, he shall surely be put to death. Leviticus 24:17

But if he struck him down with an iron object, so that he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. If he struck him down with a stone in the hand, by which he will die, and as a result he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. Or if he struck him with a wooden object in the hand, by which he might die, and as a result he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. The blood avenger himself shall put the murderer to death; he shall put him to death when he meets him. Numbers 35:16-19

Or if he struck him down with his hand in enmity, and as a result he died, the one who struck him shall surely be put to death, he is a murderer; the blood avenger shall put the murderer to death when he meets him. Numbers 35:21

If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death at the evidence of witnesses, but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. Moreover, you shall not take ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. Numbers 35:30-31

Then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. You shall not pity him, but you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you. Deuteronomy 19:12-13

God is being crystal clear. He wants no pity for genuine murderers—killers with only contempt for their victims. There are different uses of a Hebrew word, translated as “kill,” that may refer to accidental manslaughter, self-defence, assassination, or military attack. Some killing God allows or commands; other, He strictly forbids. God see the differences, mere mortals, sometimes not.

Blood Pollution

So you shall not pollute and defile the land in which you live; for [the shedding of innocent] blood pollutes and defiles the land. No atonement (expiation) can be made for the land for the [innocent] blood shed in it, except by the blood (execution) of him who shed it. Numbers 35:33 Amplified Bible

Must Have Certainty

What if the evidence for first-degree murder is inconclusive? What if there is some reasonable doubt? If there’s real doubt, despite all the efforts of the legal system, capital punishment may be stayed, because of its irreversible nature. Every case is unique and requires judicial discretion.

Translation: Support

The Hebrew word for “support,” תמך (tā•măḵ, pronounced “tah-mak”), means “to take hold of” or “support.” tā•măḵ is used in Exodus 17:12 when Aaron and Hur supported Moses’ hands to keep him praying. It means what it says—giving someone else physical assistance. On a related note about killing the innocent, abortion should NOT be supported by government. Instead the government should make adoption much easier.

Misguided Mercy and Money

Any who think it nobler to let a murderer live, not only disdain the righteous laws of God, but cheapen the life of the victim. From a financial perspective, governments who are soft on crime waste taxpayers’ money. The death penalty for first degree murder was commonplace in North America and Europe for hundreds of years. However, in the 20th century, it was slowly abolished in most First World countries—those same countries now deeply in debt. The last execution in Canada was on December 11, 1962 at Toronto’s Don Jail.

Ironically, due to extensive legal wrangling, especially in the USA, it may actually cost more to follow through on an execution than to keep a convicted prisoner incarcerated for the rest of his life. There is much debate on this topic, especially in the latter part of the 20th century. It is no longer politically correct to administer capital punishment.

In July 2018, Pope Francis officially changed the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching on the death penalty. Now, according to the pope, it is “inadmissible, because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.” Pope Francis acknowledged that, in past centuries, the Papal States used the death penalty, but now that was a mistake². The Bible is not mistaken.

To read more about the moral reasons for capital punishment for murder go to: Apologetic Press - Killing, Murder, and the Bible.

Our Maker, Saviour, and Friend

But what does Jesus think of the original Mosaic Law?

In Matthew 5:17, Jesus says, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law.” He condemns personal hatred as the cause of murder. In Matthew 5:22, Jesus says even personal anger or insult warrant the punishment of Hell. So He amplifies the threat of capital punishment by broadening the transgression from a evil action to an evil attitude. Further, the penalty changes from mere physical death to everlasting torment in Hell. Jesus is much, much stricter with both the violation and the penalty! Surely all of us have hated someone else, at some time or another.

There would be no hope for us at all, except that Jesus himself has substituted himself. He paid the death penalty for us. All who trust in Him can go free of their justly deserved sentence of eternal damnation, whether their sin is murder in action or murder in attitude.

¹ Thibault, Eric. “Federal inmate costs soar to $117Gs each per year.” Edmonton Sun, March 19, 2014. http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/03/18/federal-inmate-cost-soars-to-177gs-each-per-year

2 The National Post, August 3, 2018  As reported by Nick Squires, The Daily Telegraph, with files from the Associated Press.