to spill forth (blood · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct
man’s
הָֽאָדָ֔םha.'a.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
blood
דַּ֣םdam
H1818
blood (as that which when shed causes death) of man or… · noun, common masculine singular construct
man
בָּֽאָדָ֖םba.'a.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
blood
דָּמ֣וֹda.Mo
H1818
blood (as that which when shed causes death) of man or… · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
shed
יִשָּׁפֵ֑ךְyi.sha.Fekh
H8210
to spill forth (blood · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
image
בְּצֶ֣לֶםbe.Tze.lem
H6754
a phantom · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
God
אֱלֹהִ֔ים'E.lo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
made
עָשָׂ֖ה'a.Sah
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
man
הָאָדָֽםha.'a.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Leviticus 24:17 And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death.
Matthew 26:52 Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Revelation 13:10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience a…
Exodus 21:12-14 He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.
Numbers 35:33 So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed t…
Genesis 1:26-27 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of th…
James 3:9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
Genesis 5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 9:1-7
We read, in the close of the foregoing chapter, the very kind things which God said in his heart, concerning the remnant of mankind which was now left to be the seed of a new world. Now here we have these kind things spoken to them. In general, God blessed Noah and his sons (Gen 9:1), that is, he assured them of his good-will to them and his gracious intentions concerning them. This follows from what he said in his heart. Note, All God's promises of good flow from his purposes of love and the counsels of his own will. See Eph 1:11, Eph 3:11, and compare Jer 29:11. I know the thoughts that I think towards you. We read (Gen 8:20) how Noah blessed God, by his altar and sacrifice. Now here we fi…
Whoso sheddeth man's blood . . . for in the image of God made he man--It is true that image has been injured by the fall, but it is not lost. In this view, a high value is attached to the life of every man, even the poorest and humblest, and an awful criminality is involved in the destruction of it.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 9:6
Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood - Hence it appears that whoever kills a man, unless unwittingly, as the Scripture expresses it, shall forfeit his own life.
A man is accused of the crime of murder; of this crime he is guilty or he is not: if he be guilty of murder he should die; if not, let him be punished according to the demerit of his crime; but for no offense but murder should he lose his life. Taking away the life of another is the highest offense that can be committed against the individual, and against society; and the highest punishment that a man can suffer for such a crime is the loss of his own life. As punishment should be ever proportioned to crimes, so the hig…
Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed,.... That is, he that is guilty of wilful murder shall surely be put to death by the order of the civil magistrate; so the Targum of Jonathan,"by witnesses the judges shall condemn him to death,''that is, the fact being clearly proved by witnesses, the judges shall condemn"him to death,''that is, the fact being clearly proved by witnesses, the judges shall pass the sentence of death upon him, and execute it; for this is but the law of retaliation, a just and equitable one, blood for blood, or life for life; though it seems to be the first law of this kind that empowered the civil magistrate to take away life; God, as it is thought, r…
The Church Fathers
Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God have I made man. Hence it is manifest that God, both before the transgression and long after its occurrence, gave to man the same honour and power and dominion.
For man was made in the image of God. Therefore, it is a greater crime to kill an innocent man; because whoever does this not only destroys the work which God made but also corrupts His image. Therefore God requires the souls of men from beasts or men by whom they were driven from the body, because He made man in His image in that He intended him to remain for eternity, and not to perish with the death of the body like the animals; and for the sake of this sacrament, it is not permitted to eat flesh with blood, so that we may always be reminded by this command that we were created according to the substance of our soul in the image of our Creator, and that we should fear corrupting that same image in ourselves by sinning.
Whoever sheds human blood, their blood shall be shed. Many have shed human blood, and their blood has not been shed. And others have killed a man with poison or by hanging, and yet when the man is dead, blood is not shed; how then will the Lord shed their blood in such a man when he who has killed has not shed blood, unless because the blood of man, as we have said, should be understood to be his vital substance by which he subsists? Whoever sheds it, that is, whoever kills a man by some kind of death, his blood will be shed because by sinning he loses eternal life. For the soul that sins will die (Ezekiel 18:20). Which is similar to what is said to Peter: For all those who take up the sword will perish by the sword; as if it were openly said: All who unjustly kill a man, and they themselves perish by killing in the soul. It is fittingly added:
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Covenant — A contract or agreement between two parties. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word berith is always thus translated. Berith is derived from a root which means “to cut,” and hence a covenant is a…
Murder — Wilful murder was distinguished from accidental homicide, and was invariably visited with capital punishment (Num. 35:16, 18, 21, 31; Lev. 24:17). This law in its principle is founded on the fact of…
Punishments — The earliest theory of punishment current among mankind is doubtless the one of simple retaliation, “blood for blood.” Viewed historically, the first case of punishment for crime mentioned in…
Avenger Of Blood · Premosaic — Premosaic
Blood · Shedding of human: Always punished — Shedding of human: Always punished
Deception · General references — General references
Homicide · FELONIOUS, OR MUR — FELONIOUS, OR MUR
Image · .Man created in, of God — .Man created in, of God
Law Of God, The · Given: To Noah — Given: To Noah
Man · CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD — CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD
Murder · Why forbidden by God — Why forbidden by God
Punishment · .For mur — .For mur
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Whoso sheddeth man's blood [291] The clause in man which is here added, has the force of amplification. Some expound it, Before witnesses.' Others refer it to what follows, namely, that by man his blood should be shed.' [292] But all these interpretations are forced. What I have said must be remembered, that this language rather expresses the atrociousness of the crime; because whosoever kills a man, draws down upon himself the blood and life of his brother. On the whole, they are deceived (in my judgment) who think that a political law, for the punishment of homicides, is here simply intended. Truly I do not deny that the punishment which the laws ordain, and which the judges execute, are f…
"Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; even as the green of the herb have I given you all (את־כּל = חכּל)." These words do not affirm that man then first began to eat animal food, but only that God then for the first time authorized, or allowed him to do, what probably he had previously done in opposition to His will. "Only flesh in its soul, its blood (דמו in apposition to בּנפשׁו), shall ye not eat;" i.e., flesh in which there is still blood, because the soul of the animal is in the blood. The prohibition applies to the eating of flesh with blood in it, whether of living animals, as is the barbarous custom in Abyssinia, or of slaughtered animals from which the blood has not…
For God made human beings in his own image: The death penalty has a theological basis. God’s image gives humans a unique status and authority within creation (1:26-28). Since murder destroys a person made in God’s image, the ultimate penalty must be imposed on a murderer. See also Exod 21:23-25. We are not to pursue personal revenge (Rom 12:17-19) but are to uphold the justice of the “governing authorities” that God has established (Rom 13:1-7).
