"Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die. "Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death. "Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death. "Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death. "When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed, then if the man rises again and walks outdoors with his staff, he who struck him shall be clear; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall have him thoroughly healed.
Exodus 21:12-19
These verses deal with killing and murder. For general comment on the subject, see Note on 20:13. Here, a distinction is made between accidental, unpremeditated killing and deliberate, premeditated killing ('presumptuously', 14), between murder, that is, and culpable homicide or manslaughter. For the latter, provision was made in the form of a place of refuge (13) where he would be safe from the harshness and implacability of avenging relatives. This provision was later extended to six cities of refuge (Numbers 35:6 and Joshua 20). No such provision however was made for the deliberate killer. He must die. In view of the categorical nature of such pronouncements, it should be noted that no sentimental ideas about reverence for life influence the scriptural position against capital punishment. Throughout this chapter the dignity of human life is very prominent, and we can hardly suppose that reverence for life has been forgotten; it is simply that the Scriptures think more reverently of the life that has been violated and murdered, than of the life which violates and murders. This is the realism of the Scriptures which is a healthy corrective to the sentimentalism of modern idealism. There is another point that arises in connection with the infliction of the death penalty for offences other than murder that is of some importance, but we shall deal with it in the next Note.