Genesis 4:9-10
9Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, a“I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” 10And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood bis crying to me from the ground.Leviticus 19:16
16 cYou shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not dstand up against the life ▼▼Hebrew blood
of your neighbor: I am the Lord. Numbers 35:31-33
31Moreover, you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death, but he shall be put to death. 32And you shall accept no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the high priest. 33You shall not fpollute the land in which you live, for blood gpollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except hby the blood of the one who shed it.Deuteronomy 21:1-9
Atonement for Unsolved Murders
1“If in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess someone is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him, 2then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities. 3And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer ithat has never been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke. 4And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen jthem to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Lord, and kby their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled. 6And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man lshall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. 8Accept atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and mdo not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.’ 9So nyou shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.Psalms 9:12
12For he who oavenges blood is mindful of them;he pdoes not forget the cry of the afflicted.
Matthew 23:35
35so that on you may come all qthe righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous rAbel to the blood of sZechariah the son of Barachiah, ▼▼Some manuscripts omit the son of Barachiah
whom you murdered between uthe sanctuary and vthe altar.
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