Is killing always wrong?
Hard question · The law of Moses · raised by 3 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
Whoever kills a man is to be put to death; a killing that was not planned is treated differently from one done with guile.
He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death. And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.
After the golden calf, Moses sends the Levites through the camp to slay; about three thousand die.
Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.
A man who gathers sticks on the Sabbath is stoned by the congregation at the Lord’s command.
And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses.
Samuel tells Saul to destroy Amalek for its attack on Israel after the exodus.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
The objection
One of the Ten Commandments is “Thou shalt not kill”. Yet in the same books God has the Levites slay three thousand of their own people, commands a man to be stoned for gathering sticks on the Sabbath, and sends Saul to destroy the Amalekites. How can the same God forbid killing and command it?
The answer
The Hebrew verb in the commandment is ratsach (Strong’s H7523). It is the word for the unlawful killing of a person: murder, and also the careless manslaughter for which a man had to flee to a city of refuge (Numbers 35:11; Deuteronomy 4:42). It is never used of killing in battle, nor of slaughtering animals. That is why most modern versions translate the commandment “You shall not murder” (WEB, BSB), and why the King James Version itself, when Jesus quotes it in Matthew 19:18, has “Thou shalt do no murder”.
The law that gives the commandment also distinguishes murder from other killing. The very next chapter commands the death penalty for murder, and treats a killing that was not planned differently from one done “with guile” (Exodus 21:12-14), as Genesis 9:6 had already set the penalty for shedding man’s blood. The cases in the objection are of that other kind. The Levites at Sinai carried out judgment on open idolatry at Moses’ command (Exodus 32:26-28). The Sabbath-breaker was put to death by the whole congregation after Moses had enquired of the Lord (Numbers 15:34-36). The war on Amalek was a judgment for Amalek’s unprovoked attack on Israel after the exodus (1 Samuel 15:2; Exodus 17:8-16). The commandment forbids anyone to take a life on his own authority; it does not forbid the judgment and war that the same law sets out. Twice ratsach is used of the lawful killing of a man who has himself killed (Numbers 35:27, 30), but it is never used of war.
Other answers Christians give
Christian non-violence
Many early Christian writers, and later Mennonites, Quakers and others, hold that Jesus’ teaching (Matthew 5:38-48) calls his followers not to take life at all, even in war or as executioners. That is a question about Christian conduct under the new covenant, not about the meaning of Exodus 20:13.
Still open
Whether Christians may fight in war or support the death penalty is debated among Christians. How to understand God’s commands to destroy Amalek and the peoples of Canaan is one of the hardest questions in the Old Testament, and Christians answer it in different ways.
From the classic commentators
yet killing of men in lawful war, or in defence of a man's self, when his own life is in danger, or the execution of malefactors by the hands or order of the civil magistrate, and killing a man at unawares, without any design, are not to be reckoned breaches of this lawJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Exodus 20 (1746–1763), at Bible Hub
Sources
- Strong’s Hebrew 7523, ratsach, with the Brown-Driver-Briggs entry, at Bible Hub
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Exodus 20, at Bible Hub
- Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Exodus 32, at Bible Hub
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Matthew 5, at Bible Hub