A murderer’s tormented conscience will drive him into the grave. Don’t protect him!
Parallel translations
- WEB A man who is tormented by life blood will be a fugitive until death; no one will support him.
- KJV A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit; let no man stay him.
- BSB A man burdened by bloodguilt will flee into the Pit; let no one support him.
- NKJV A man burdened with bloodshed will flee into a pit; Let no one help him.
- NASB A person who is burdened with the guilt of human blood Will be a fugitive until death; no one is to support him!
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 person guilty of bloodshed will live as a haunted fugitive, and none should shield him from justice. It upholds the seriousness of guilt and the demands of justice.
Overview
The proverb describes a murderer fleeing in perpetual torment of conscience, warning that no one should intervene to protect him from deserved justice. It affirms the gravity of shedding innocent blood. Yet the gospel offers what the law alone cannot, for even the guiltiest who repent find refuge and cleansing in the blood of Christ (Hebrews 9:14).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Gen 9:6Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image.
- Exod 21:14If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.
- 1 Kgs 21:19You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “Have you killed and also taken possession?”’ You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs will lick your blood, even yours.”’”
- Num 35:14–34You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and you shall give three cities in the land of Canaan. They shall be cities of refuge.
- 2 Kgs 9:26‘Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,’ says Yahweh; ‘and I will repay you in this plot of ground,’ says Yahweh. Now therefore take and cast him onto the plot of ground, according to Yahweh’s word.”
- Matt 27:4–5saying, “I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? You see to it.”
- 2 Chr 24:21–25They conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of Yahweh’s house.
- 1 Kgs 21:23Yahweh also spoke of Jezebel, saying, “The dogs will eat Jezebel by the rampart of Jezreel.
- Acts 28:4When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped from the sea, yet Justice has not allowed to live.”
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 28:17 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.