Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 6. Shed. God had not subjected Cain to this law of retaliation, as he was the first murderer, and the earth was unpeopled. Bible.—Here he declares, that it is just to inflict such a punishment on the offender. Menochius.—Judges are hence authorized to punish murderers with death. Calmet.—The general law, thou shalt not kill, admits of exceptions, and forbids killing by private authority, or out of revenge. Bible.—The blood of your lives, may signify the blood on which your life depends; or, according to the Rabbin, it is a prohibition of suicide, which one would think is so contrary to the first law of nature, self-preservation, as to require no prohibition; and yet, to the scandal of philosophers, some have written in its defence! Bible.