Murder

Murder was a serious crime, both according to the laws of the Old Testament, and in the New Testament. One of the Ten Commandments deals with murder.

Murder and Manslaughter

In Old Testament law a distinction is made between murder and manslaughter:

murder is premeditated killing, for example out of jealousy. Another example of murder in the Old Testament is culpable negligence in relation to a rampaging ox: if a person neglects to tie down an ox that has been prone to goring people, and this ox then gores someone to death, this is seen as murder. When murder has been committed, the perpetrator must be punished.
manslaughter is accidental homicide, for instance if the blade of an axe comes loose while someone is chopping wood. In the case of manslaughter, a person could flee to a sanctuary, where he would be safe. In such cases, blood vengeance was not allowed. The perpetrator could go free after a trial.

Exceptions

There were exceptions to the punishments for murder or manslaughter:

blood vengeance was not regarded as murder. Accordingly, the actions of an avenger were exempt from further blood vengeance.
in practice, killing in times of war was also permissible. The Israelites were killing the enemies of God, after all.
if someone was knocked down during a fight, got back up, but died a little while later, the perpetrator was not punished for manslaughter (Exodus 21:20-21).

If the Murderer was Unknown

If someone had been murdered, but the perpetrator’s identity was not known, a purification ritual had to be carried out.
According to Deuteronomy 21:1-9, the elders and judges of the nearest town were to break the neck of a young cow and wash their hands, declaring out loud that they had not committed the murder. In this way the city was free from blood debt.