In Deuteronomy 19 Yehovah instructs Israel’s seed (erroneously and otherwise known as “the children of Israel”) to separate 3 cities (all Levitical cities) and later, once we had taken the land of the Canaanites, to add 3 more; lest the avenger of blood should overtake the man-slayer (הרצח, ha-ra-tsach), who was not deserving of death, and kill him.

“Now if Yehovah, thy Elohim enlarges thy territory, as He swore to thy fathers, and gives thee the land which He promised to give to thy fathers, and if thou keep all these commandments and do them, which I command thee today, to love Yehovah, thy Elohim and to walk always in His ways, then thou shall add three more cities for thyself besides these three, lest innocent blood be shed in the midst of thy land which Yehovah, thy Elohim is giving thee as an inheritance, and thus guilt of bloodshed [דמים, da-mim is the plural form of דם, dam or blood] be upon thee. (Deu 19:9-10)

This word דמים, da-mim is translated in many ways; “guilt of bloodshed,” “blood-guiltiness.” “the guilt of shedding blood,” “blood,” and others; but the one I like best is, “all the blood.”

Yehovah feels strongly about the innocent blood of a man or an animal that is killed improperly, and blood is a subject that He talks about over 300 times in in Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy). Anyone who sheds blood of man or beast (be-hem-ah) inappropriately will be cut off from Israel. He says the life is in the blood.

But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood [דם] . Surely for your blood [דם], for your lives, I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. “Whoever sheds the man’s blood [דם], by a man his blood [דם] shall be shed; For in the image of Elohim He made the man. (Gen 9:4-6)

Moreover you shall not eat any blood [דם] in any of your dwellings, whether of bird or beast. Whoever eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people.’ ” (Lev 7:26-27)

“Whatever man of the house of Israel who kills an ox or lamb or goat in the camp, or who kills it outside the camp, and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of meeting to offer an offering to Yehovah before the tabernacle of Yehovah, the guilt of bloodshed [דם, blood] is imputed to that man. Blood [דם] he has shed; and that man shall be cut off from among his people. (Lev 17:3-4)

If a man lies with a woman during her sickness and uncovers her nakedness, he has exposed her flow, and she has uncovered the flow of her blood [דם]. Both of them shall be cut off from their people. (Lev 20:18)

Killing a man, slaughtering a clean animal inappropriately, and even eating a clean animal that has been slaughtered by another inappropriately [this is what “meat sacrificed to idols” is all about“] has eternal consequences; and if you have eaten any meat, with the USDA label on it, you too are guilty of “all the blood.” Being cut off from among Yehovah’s people means there is no life after death. But hey, most men today are not Yehovah’s people anyway; they have never left the kingdom of their birth and made themselves wholly Yehovah’s man; they have committed this sin and would be cut off from among Yehovah’s people even if they were his people. So eat, drink and be merry; but know, that payment will be due.

Yehovah commanded each Ezrach man concerning how to lead those within his gates saying,

Thou shalt not רצח [ra-tsach]; Thou shall not murder! (Exo 20:13)

If a man is killed within thy gates / thy land, and his blood goes unredeemed; that blood will Continue reading Guilt Of Bloodshed →