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also happen if a man divorced his wife and remarried her after she
was divorced or widowed by a second husband ( Jer. 3:1).8.1.5.2 Bloodguilt
The greatest contaminant was the blood of murder victims. To pre-
vent this contamination, Israel had to execute murderers (Num.
35:33). Cities of refuge isolated the contamination. A murderer was
not allowed to stay there, but an accidental homicide had to stay
to quarantine the miasma of blood pollution attached to the killer.
Should a corpse be discovered and the killer not be detected, the
elders of the nearest city were to decapitate a heifer over an eter-
nally flowing stream, avow their innocence, and pray that God not
let the bloodguilt settle on the land (Deut. 21:1–9).8.1.5.3 A man’s body, hung or impaled after execution, must be
cut down at nightfall, “so that you will not pollute your land” (Deut.
21:22–23).8.2 Homicide^70
The one who strikes another in secret incurs the communal curse
in Deut. 27:24. A murderer must be put to death (Exod. 21:12; Lev.
24:18), a rule that extends also to animals (Gen. 9:5), so that an ox
that gores someone to death is stoned and its flesh may not be eaten
(Exod. 21:28). The explicit reason is that humans are the divine
image (Gen. 9:6). The civil war that almost destroyed the tribe of
Benjamin began when Benjamin refused to hand over the men of
Gibeah for execution for their rape-murder of the concubine ( Judg.
20:12–14). David killed and impaled the men who killed Ishboshet
in order (he said) to requite Ish-Bosheth’s blood and eliminate it
from the land (2 Sam. 4:5–12).8.2.1 Anyone who kills with an iron, stone, or wooden implement
is a murderer (Num. 35:16–19). Homicide without weapons (push-
ing, throwing something, or hitting with the fist) is also murder if it
is intentional or arises out of enmity (Num. 35:20–21) or the mur-
derer lay in ambush (Exod. 21:13; Num. 35:20, 22; Deut. 19:11).
Homicide without malice is not murder. Deuteronomy gives examples(^70) Haas, “ ‘Die He Shall Surely Die...’”
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