More on kill vs. murder please?

Question

I ask a few days ago for better understanding of difference. I must say I was not convinced to change my thinking. However many had told me the Bible says Thou shalt not murder. I looked it up in mine. And it still says Thou shalt not kill (Exodus 20:13). Does mine have a misprint? I even looked up what Jesus had to say on this subject. I found him to include harsh words out of anger to constitute killing. I found this more in line with my current beliefs. So how is this that many say it is justified to kill? Or why did missionaries give me wrong book? I am not interested in conversion just better understanding.

*sufi you ask very good questions. I would only eat that which is given freely from the plant without causing harm to it. I will also be mindful of all that the plant as experienced to bring me this. I will defend myself but not to the point of taking another's life or causing unhealing harm. Perhaps just enough fight to flee is enough.

*till- no just as same as here over and over same words. But no one explains why Jesus words are not followed.

Answer 1

Words are the least form of communication.

Answer 2

I think Kill covers to much. If you are in a car and someone pulls out in front of you and you slam on brakes but still hit the car. Or a kid runs out into the street.
The drive dies. Did you kill that person... yes if you were not there he may have lived.
Did you murder him... no it was not like you said let me wake up and casue a death to a person.
I would say the bible and teaching should be like you said casue harm out anger, spite, with intent to harm is the proper teaching.
With the broad term kill could intel that could be that a doctor could never get into heaven. A patient will die in a week without a very risky operation. The doctors operates and the patient dies that day. He shorten his life by a week. Is his enternal life in danger because of it ? I don't think so

Answer 3

Indeed, "kill" in English is an all-encompassing verb that covers the taking of life in all forms and for all classes of victims. That kind of generalization is expressed in Hebrew through the verb "harag." However, the verb that appears in the Torah's prohibition is a completely different one, " ratsah" which, it would seem, should be rendered "murder." This root refers only to criminal acts of killing.The good old King James version of the Bible, which introduced this formulation into standard English discourse, is usually much more accurate in its Hebrew scholarship

Answer 4

The word 'ratsach' refers to any killing that is done in the manner of a predatory animal -- which means either 1) as an angry reaction to stimulus; or 2) lying in wait, as one waits for prey.

In Judges 20:4, it describes the killing of a woman who was in a house that was beset upon by night by a gang of evil men.
1 Kings 21:19, the Lord rhetorically asks Ahab if he has ratsached. This is after Ahab has concluded a plot to do away with Naboth by having two fellows say they have heard Naboth blaspheme. (This word also describes Ahab in 2 Kings 6:32.)
In Job 24:14, it describes one who in the light sets upon the poor and the needy, and is a thief at night.
In Ps. 62:3, it describes the fate of someone who is not prepared for what will happen to them, for they have no foundation in God. In Ps. 94:6 it describes the wicked who kill the widow and the stranger -- those who are helpless and disoriented.
In Prov. 22:13, it describes something a lion will do to the slothful man.
In Hos. 6:9, it is applied to priests who commit iniquity, with a comparison to a troop of robbers waiting for someone.

Answer 5

The word "kill" in English is an all-encompassing verb that covers the taking of life in all forms and for all classes of victims. That kind of generalization is expressed in Hebrew through the verb "harag." However, the verb that appears in the Torah's prohibition is a completely different one, " ratsah" which, it would seem, should be rendered "murder." This root refers only to criminal acts of killing.

Answer 6

Please keep the following thoughts in mind as you ponder this theological question.

1. We will all die. Only the cause, date and time remain to be seen.

2. If a person falls asleep at the wheel of their car, crashes into another car and kills the passenger in their own car, as well as a passenger in the car they struck, are they guilty of murder? Did they "kill" either person and, if so, was there intent or malice in their heart?

3. If a madman is lunging at your wife and children with a knife intending to slay them - you struggle with him, and in the process, he falls on the knife and dies. Murder? Killing? Self-defense? Obviously self defense, but what was the motivation in your heart? Certainly to defend, but also not to kill. Yet beyond panic, there would probably have been some anger in your thoughts at this instant where action, not thinking, was required. How do we judge you in light of this man's death? Remember, he was a madman, insane and perhaps unable to think as a rational being. We often defer the death penalty on such people who have committed crimes for which the death penalty is prescribed.

When God said "do not kill/ murder" He is clearly talking about the intentional ending of the life of another person for reasons of anger/ hatred, jealousy, etc. Jesus knows that such anger rarely arises in an instant (although when it does, we call it a "crime of passion," as in when you walk in and catch your spouse in the "very act" of adultery. Again, our modern jurisprudence system would look very differently on such a person than one who years later stalked down his wife's paramour just to "get even." even though none of the facts had changed... only time had passed.

So, in this case, be rational: you can use the mind and rational thinking God has blessed you with to understand what God was commanding against. Death comes to all, and sometimes, a person can cause the death of another without violating this commandment - similarly, Jesus says a person can commit "murder" in his heart without actually killing someone.

And remember that we are always judged by a perfect, omnipresent and omniscient God who can see perfectly into the intents of our hearts. He will judge us accordingly. If we have truly given ourselves to Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Savior, then all our sins are forgiven. If not, we will be judged according to our sins, whether we actually murdered/ killed or just had the hatred in our hearts to do so, God knows the difference.

Answer 7

My understanding of the difference between killing and murdering has nothing to do with the Bible. I understand murder to be the act of taking another's life purposely and with intentional malice. Killing is often unintentional (car accidents, medical mistakes, etc.) and done without malice.

Answer 8

Murder is the unlawful, deliberate killing of another human being.

There are times when deliberately killing a human being isn't unlawful - during wartime, in self-defense, in the defense of another, etc.

All murders kill a human being, but not all killings of a human being are murders.

Answer 9

Kill would be to cause life to cease when otherwise it would continue.

Murder would be the premeditated planning and execution of such.

For instant, if you hit someone with your car and they died, you killed them. If you drove around looking for a specfic person and ran them over, that would be murder.

Answer 10

Basically, the word varies depending on what is more convienient for Christians. If they want to portray themselves as magnanimous do-gooders, they use "kill". But when they want to potray themselves as just and solemn, they use "murder".