21 KJV Bible Verses About Murdering the Innocent

Exodus 23:7

“Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.”

Reflection: The command sits among the laws for courts. The verse before it forbids wresting “the judgment of thy poor in his cause,” and the verse after it forbids taking a gift, “for the gift blindeth the wise.” In that setting the innocent are killed through a false case in court, and God says he “will not justify the wicked” who does it.

Deuteronomy 19:10

“That innocent blood be not shed in thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and so blood be upon thee.”

Reflection: Moses gives the reason for the cities of refuge: three at first, and three more if the LORD enlarges Israel’s borders. They protect a man who kills his neighbour by accident, as when an axe head “slippeth from the helve,” so that the avenger of blood does not kill one who “was not worthy of death” (19:5-6). The innocent blood in view is the accidental killer’s. The deliberate murderer who flees to such a city is handed over, and in that case Israel must “put away the guilt of innocent blood” (19:13).

Deuteronomy 27:25

“Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say, Amen.”

Reflection: The curse falls on the man who takes a reward to kill, and all the people are to answer it with “Amen.” Exodus 23:8 had already forbidden taking a gift in court.

Deuteronomy 21:8-9

“Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel’s charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them. So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.”

Reflection: The law covers a body found in a field when “it be not known who hath slain him” (21:1). The elders of the nearest city break the neck of a heifer that has never worn a yoke, wash their hands over it and say, “Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it” (21:7). Numbers 35:33 had said the land “cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it”; Deuteronomy 21 provides for the case where that man cannot be found.

Proverbs 6:16-17

“These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,”

Reflection: Hands that shed innocent blood come third in a list of seven, between a lying tongue and “an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations” (6:18). The list moves through the body: eyes, tongue, hands, heart, feet. Earlier in Proverbs, a father warns his son against men who say, “let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause” (1:11).

Psalm 10:8

“He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.”

Reflection: The psalmist describes a man who waits in hiding to kill, with his eyes “privily set against the poor.” In his heart he says, “God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it” (10:11). The psalm answers him three verses later: “Thou hast seen it… thou art the helper of the fatherless” (10:14).

Psalm 94:21

“They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.”

Reflection: The killers in this psalm work through a court. The verse before asks whether “the throne of iniquity, which frameth mischief by a law,” can have fellowship with God. To “condemn the innocent blood” is to sentence an innocent person to death, and the psalm ends with the confidence that “the LORD our God shall cut them off” (94:23).

Isaiah 59:7

“Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.”

Reflection: Isaiah opens the chapter by saying the LORD’s ear is not “heavy, that it cannot hear,” and that their iniquities have separated them from God: “your hands are defiled with blood” (59:2-3). The first half of the verse repeats Proverbs 1:16 almost word for word: “their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.”

Psalm 106:38

“And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.”

Reflection: The psalm recounts Israel’s history of rebellion, and here the innocent blood is that of children. The verse before says they “sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils.” The land itself is “polluted with blood,” and two verses later “the wrath of the LORD” is kindled against his people (106:40).

Jeremiah 19:4-5

“Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:”

Reflection: The place in view is the valley of the son of Hinnom, called Tophet, where children were burned as offerings to Baal. God says of the practice that he “commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind,” and announces that the valley will be renamed “The valley of slaughter” (19:6).

2 Kings 21:16

“Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.”

Reflection: King Manasseh shed so much blood that he “filled Jerusalem from one end to another.” The verse keeps the two sins apart: the bloodshed, and “his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin.”

2 Kings 24:4

“And also for the innocent blood that he shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the LORD would not pardon.”

Reflection: Jehoiakim is king when the LORD sends bands of the Chaldees, the Syrians, the Moabites and the children of Ammon against Judah. The writer says this came “for the sins of Manasseh” (24:3), and singles out the innocent blood as the sin “the LORD would not pardon.”

Jeremiah 7:6

“If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:”

Reflection: Jeremiah sets the conditions for Judah to remain in the land: justice between neighbours, no oppression of the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, no innocent blood, and no other gods. The promise follows in the next verse: “Then will I cause you to dwell in this place.” Jeremiah 22:3 repeats the same commands, ending “neither shed innocent blood in this place.”

Joel 3:19

“Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.”

Reflection: Here the innocent blood is that of “the children of Judah,” and the verse names Egypt and Edom as the ones who will be made desolate for it. The chapter promises that “Judah shall dwell for ever,” and ends with the promise that he will “cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed” (3:20-21).

1 Samuel 19:5

“For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the LORD wrought a great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?”

Reflection: Jonathan pleads with his father Saul for David, reminding him that David killed the Philistine and that Saul “didst rejoice” at it. He calls the planned killing a sin “against innocent blood.” Saul listens and swears, “As the LORD liveth, he shall not be slain” (19:6).

Matthew 2:16

“Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem…”

Reflection: Herod orders the killing when he sees that the wise men have mocked him, and sets the age limit by “the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.” Matthew follows it with Jeremiah’s words about “Rachel weeping for her children” (2:17-18).

Matthew 27:4

“Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.”

Reflection: Judas says this to the chief priests and elders after seeing that Jesus is condemned, and brings back the thirty pieces of silver. The priests will not put the money in the treasury “because it is the price of blood,” and buy a burial field with it (27:6-7). Later in the chapter Pilate washes his hands and says, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person” (27:24).

Genesis 4:10

“And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.”

Reflection: God asks Cain where his brother is, and Cain answers, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” God’s reply treats the blood itself as a witness, and the next verse speaks of the earth that “opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood.” Hebrews 12:24 later sets the blood of Jesus beside Abel’s, as blood “that speaketh better things than that of Abel.”

Matthew 23:35

“That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.”

Reflection: Jesus speaks to the scribes and Pharisees, who build the tombs of the prophets while, he says, being “the children of them which killed the prophets” (23:31). He reaches from Abel to Zacharias, killed “between the temple and the altar,” and says the guilt “shall come upon this generation” (23:36). Luke 11:50-51 records the same saying, with the blood of the prophets “shed from the foundation of the world.”

Revelation 6:9-10

“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”

Reflection: At the opening of the fifth seal, John sees the souls of those “slain for the word of God” under the altar, asking how long before their blood is avenged. They are given white robes and told to rest “for a little season,” until the number of their fellow servants who will be killed is complete (6:11).

Psalm 72:14

“He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.”

Reflection: The king this psalm describes delivers “the needy when he crieth” and “him that hath no helper” (72:12), and redeems their soul “from deceit and violence.” Their blood is “precious” in his sight.