“Whoever sheds the blood of man”
Genesis 9:6
Legal referenceSettledGod
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind. (Genesis 9:6 BSB)
* Hebrew: tselem, the same royal-image word as 1:26; it supplies the reason. Murder is grave because it destroys a being who bears God's image.
What it sounds like today
A harsh rule demanding a life for a life.
The cultural key
The verse is shaped as a tight poetic mirror in Hebrew (sheds / blood / man, man / blood / sheds), the wording enacting the reciprocity it commands. But the weight is in the reason clause: the ground for treating murder as a capital matter is not property, clan honor, or social order, as in surrounding law codes, but the image of God (tselem) stamped on every person. To kill a human is to strike at God's own representative.
Recovered meaning
The value of human life is anchored in the image of God, not in status or usefulness. The law is severe precisely because every person, killer and victim alike, bears the royal likeness of their Maker.
Parallels: Genesis 1:26; Genesis 4:10