However, if someone deliberately kills another person, then the slayer must be dragged even from my altar and be put to death.
Parallel translations
- WEB If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.
- KJV 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.
- BSB But if a man schemes and acts willfully against his neighbor to kill him, you must take him away from My altar to be put to death.
- NKJV “But if a man acts with premeditation against his neighbor, to kill him by treachery, you shall take him from My altar, that he may die.
- NASB If, however, someone is enraged against his neighbor, so as to kill him in a cunning way, you are to take him even from My altar, to be put to death.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A man who murders by scheming presumption is to be taken even from the altar to die. No religious refuge shields deliberate murder from justice.
Overview
Premeditated murder receives no sanctuary, not even at God's altar; justice must be done. The law refuses to let religion become a cover for willful evil. This shows that God's mercy never excuses unrepentant sin, and true refuge from judgment is found only in Christ, not in mere external religion.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- 1 Kgs 2:28–34This news came to Joab; for Joab had followed Adonijah, although he didn’t follow Absalom. Joab fled to Yahweh’s Tent, and held onto the horns of the altar.
- Heb 10:26For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins,
- Num 15:30–31“‘But the soul who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native-born or a foreigner, the same blasphemes Yahweh. That soul shall be cut off from among his people.
- Deut 19:11–13But if any man hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises up against him, strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities;
- Deut 18:22When a prophet speaks in Yahweh’s name, if the thing doesn’t follow, nor happen, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.
- Ps 19:13Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I will be upright. I will be blameless and innocent of great transgression.
- Num 35:20–21If he shoved him out of hatred, or hurled at him, lying in wait, so that he died,
- 2 Sam 3:27When Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the middle of the gate to speak with him quietly, and struck him there in the body, so that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.
- Deut 17:12–13The man who does presumptuously, in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before Yahweh your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die. You shall put away the evil from Israel.
- Deut 1:43So I spoke to you, and you didn’t listen; but you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh, and were presumptuous, and went up into the hill country.
- 1 Kgs 1:50–51Adonijah was afraid because of Solomon; and he arose, and went, and hung onto the horns of the altar.
- 2 Kgs 11:15Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds who were set over the army, and said to them, “Bring her out between the ranks. Kill anyone who follows her with the sword.” For the priest said, “Don’t let her be slain in Yahweh’s house.”
- 2 Pet 2:10but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries;
- 2 Sam 20:9–10Joab said to Amasa, “Is it well with you, my brother?” Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.
- Deut 27:24‘Cursed is he who secretly kills his neighbor.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 21:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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