If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image.
Parallel translations
- WEB Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image.
- KJV Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
- BSB Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.
- NKJV “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.
- NASB “Whoever sheds human blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made mankind.
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
Whoever murders another person forfeits his own life, because every human being bears God's image. This grounds the gravity of murder in human dignity.
Overview
God institutes the principle of capital justice for murder, rooting it not in mere social order but in the truth that humanity is made in God's image. To assault a person is to assault the image of the Creator. The verse anticipates God's commitment to justice and dignity, fulfilled as Christ, the perfect image of God, bears the penalty of death to restore fallen image-bearers.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Lev 24:17“‘He who strikes any man mortally shall surely be put to death.
- Matt 26:52Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place, for all those who take the sword will die by the sword.
- Rev 13:10If anyone is to go into captivity, he will go into captivity. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, he must be killed. Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints.
- Num 35:33“‘So you shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes the land. No atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, but by the blood of him who shed it.
- Exod 21:12–14“One who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death,
- Gen 1:26–27God 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 birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
- Jas 3:9With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the image of God.
- Gen 5:1This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in God’s likeness.
- 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.
- Rom 13:4for he is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid, for he doesn’t bear the sword in vain; for he is a servant of God, an avenger for wrath to him who does evil.
- Gen 4:14Behold, you have driven me out today from the surface of the ground. I will be hidden from your face, and I will be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. Whoever finds me will kill me.”
- Ps 51:4Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight; that you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.
- Lev 17:4and hasn’t brought it to the door of the Tent of Meeting, to offer it as an offering to Yahweh before Yahweh’s tabernacle: blood shall be imputed to that man. He has shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people.
- Num 35:25The congregation shall deliver the man slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he had fled. He shall dwell therein until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.
- Exod 22:2–3If the thief is found breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt of bloodshed for him.
- 1 Kgs 2:5–6“Moreover you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, even what he did to the two captains of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner, and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war on his sash that was around his waist, and in his shoes that were on his feet.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 9:6 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.