Proverbs 28:17

⁶Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image.

¹⁴If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.

¹⁹You shall speak to him, saying, ‘The LORD says, “Have you killed and also taken possession?”’ You shall speak to him, saying, ‘The LORD says, “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs will lick your blood, even yours.”’”

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.”

²³The LORD also spoke of Jezebel, saying, “The dogs will eat Jezebel by the rampart of Jezreel.

¹⁴You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and you shall give three cities in the land of Canaan. They shall be cities of refuge. ¹⁵These six cities shall be refuge for the children of Israel, for the stranger, and for the foreigner living among them, that everyone who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.

¹⁶“‘But if he struck him with an instrument of iron, so that he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁷If he struck him with a stone in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁸Or if he struck him with a weapon of wood in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁹The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death. When he meets him, he shall put him to death. ²⁰If he shoved him out of hatred, or hurled something at him while lying in wait, so that he died, ²¹or in hostility struck him with his hand, so that he died, he who struck him shall surely be put to death. He is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.

²²“‘But if he shoved him suddenly without hostility, or hurled on him anything without lying in wait, ²³or with any stone, by which a man may die, not seeing him, and cast it on him so that he died, and he was not his enemy and not seeking his harm, ²⁴then the congregation shall judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances. 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.

²⁶“‘But if the man slayer shall at any time go beyond the border of his city of refuge where he flees, ²⁷and the avenger of blood finds him outside of the border of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the man slayer, he shall not be guilty of blood, ²⁸because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the man slayer shall return into the land of his possession.

²⁹“‘These things shall be for a statute and ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

³⁰“‘Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be slain based on the testimony of witnesses; but one witness shall not testify alone against any person so that he dies.

³¹“‘Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death. He shall surely be put to death.

³²“‘You shall take no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may come again to dwell in the land before the death of the priest.

³³“‘So you shall not pollute the land where you live; 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. ³⁴You shall not defile the land which you inhabit, where I dwell; for I, the LORD, dwell among the children of Israel.’”

²⁶‘Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,’ says the LORD; ‘and I will repay you in this plot of ground,’ says the LORD. Now therefore take and cast him onto the plot of ground, according to the LORD’s word.”

⁴saying, “I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? You see to it.”

⁵He threw down the pieces of silver in the sanctuary and departed. Then he went away and hanged himself.

²¹They conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the LORD’s house. ²²Thus Joash the king didn’t remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but killed his son. When he died, he said, “May the LORD look at it, and repay it.”

²³At the end of the year, the army of the Syrians came up against him. They came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all their plunder to the king of Damascus. ²⁴For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men; and the LORD delivered a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers. So they executed judgment on Joash.

²⁵When they had departed from him (for they left him seriously wounded), his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his bed, and he died. They buried him in David’s city, but they didn’t bury him in the tombs of the kings.