6th Commandment: Do Not Kill

Reflection Questions

• By using a term as broad as ratsakh, what is the 6th Commandment inviting us to meditate on?

• What are some of the reasons that murder is considered such a horrendous act in the Bible?

• The 10 Commandments aim to point us toward life and flourishing. What role does the sixth command play in that?

• If we flip this command around to a positive, what is God’s invitation to us?

Chapter 1: The 6th Commandment and the Broad Meaning of Ratsakh

In Exodus 20:13-15, we enter a triad of commands that are just two words each in Hebrew: no killing (lo’ tirtsakh), no adultery (lo’ tin’aph), and no stealing (lo’ tignob). The first of this triad, the sixth command, is usually translated as “Do not murder.” Tim acknowledges that choosing to translate it as “No killing” or “Do not kill” prompts many questions and potential exceptions. The biblical authors are prepared to respond to these questions through a series of stories in Genesis 1-9.

Almost all English translations (except for the King James Version) render Exodus 20:13 as “You shall not murder.” But “kill” and “murder” feel distinct, with “kill” feeling like the more generic term for ending any kind of life, and “murder” carrying the weight of wrongdoing or malicious intent against a human.

There are many Hebrew words for taking a life: harag, which is an unauthorized taking of a life, appears 160 times. And mut—which on its own means to die naturally, but can also be used in a phrase to “put someone to death”—appears 200 times. But the Hebrew root word in the sixth command is ratsakh (taking the form of tirtsakh in the text). Ratsakh only occurs 46 times, and half of those are in laws about cities of refuge where an unintentional killing—what we’d call manslaughter—is involved ( Num. 35:6-34; Josh. 20-21). In fact, in those cases, the person who unintentionally killed someone is the rotseakh (the noun form of ratsakh). But ratsakh can also be used to mean intentional murder or framing someone for a capital offense (1 Kgs. 21).

So, ratsakh is a broad term for ending a life, best captured by the English word “kill.” The sixth command intentionally uses this broad term to make us stop and meditate on the value of human life and the idea that killing should be avoided. We see this principle applied in the later case laws, like Exodus 21:12-14. The Hebrew Bible will go on to make qualifications for times when it’s appropriate to kill. But the goal of this commandment is first to act as wisdom literature, leading you to meditate on the value of life and to avoid killing when possible.

Chapter 2: The Cosmic Value of Life

Genesis 1:20-28 tells us that God is the originator of all living creatures (or chayot / chayah in Hebrew). But God also entrusts the care of life to humans. God alone has the authority to take away life, as he does indirectly by banishing humanity from Eden when they rebel (Gen. 3).

Outside the garden, humanity enters a spiral of violence and taking life, beginning with Cain murdering his brother Abel, whose blood “cries out” from the ground (Gen. 4:1-11). This moment represents a rupture in the cosmos; Cain has taken life that was not his to take. Cain’s descendant Lamech intensifies human violence by proudly boasting of taking a person’s life for a smaller offense (Gen. 4:23-24).

Chapter 3: Accountability for Taking Life

After the flood, God makes a concession that humans may kill animals for food—but they must pour out the blood first, because life is in the blood, and life belongs to God alone. God appoints humans with the authority to administer capital punishment, but he still holds us accountable for the taking of life (Gen. 9:4-6). There is an inherent paradox even within capital punishment, because the punishment for taking life itself also takes life.

The 10 Commandments as a whole point toward life and flourishing. So even in making decisions around killing animals or taking life in capital punishment, self-defense, or war, we do well to focus the best of our thinking, energy, and wisdom on the flourishing of others.