The taking of another human being’s life illegally. Protection from killing is a central part of God’s covenantal blessing to Noah after the Flood; God will seek blood for a human being’s blood, whether the latter is shed by an animal or another human being (Gen 9:4-6), for human beings were created in God’s image. In the Decalogue, God prohibits killing (Exod 20:13; Deut 5:17), the sanction here too being understood as divine. Causing death by direct physical contact in principle rendered the killer liable to death (Exod 21:12). The possibility of asylum was available in cases of accident (Exod 21:13; Deut 19:15), but not in cases of premeditation, such as ambush (Exod 21:13) or previous hatred (Exod 21:14; Deut 4:42; Deut 19:4; Deut 19:6; Deut 19:11; Josh 20:5; Num 35:20). Homicide in the course of a sudden quarrel was viewed as comparable to accidental homicide (Num 35:22-23). In the NT, Jesus reiterates the prohibition against murder (Matt 19:18), whose source is Satan (John 8:44). Indeed, to hate another human being is reckoned by Jesus as equivalent to murder (Matt 5:21-22; 1John 3:15).
