What Does Exodus 20:13 Mean?
You shall not murder.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Thou shalt not kill.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb names homicide, the taking of human life, so “kill” here carries a sharper focus than the English word can suggest.
THE MEANING
This command places a boundary around human life: one person’s life is not disposable to another. Its Hebrew verb speaks of homicide, giving the broad English word “kill” a more specific focus.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that another person’s life can be treated as expendable.
THE ROOT
תִּרְצָח
tirṣaḥ
GROWS FROM
רצח
To commit homicide; to slay.
“murder” in this verse is tirṣaḥ. This root names both the act of taking a life and a person who has caused a death, including a case later described as accidental. The command forbids homicide, while the wider law distinguishes intent, a precision the broad English “kill” can obscure.
ALSO GROWS
tirṣaḥ: You shall murder; you shall commit homicide.
תִּרְצָח
This is the verb in the command, making the prohibition direct and specific.
rōtsēaḥ: A slayer, murderer, or person who has caused a death.
רֹצֵחַ
Numbers 35 uses this same-root word for a person who kills “at unawares,” showing that the surrounding law distinguishes cases by intent.
THE PATTERN
Scripture marks human life as guarded by naming the taking of it as a moral boundary.
Whoever pours out the blood of man, by man his blood shall be poured out, for in the shape of God he made man.You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be held to the judgment.For the one who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not kill. Now if you commit no adultery, but you kill, you have become one who steps across the instruction.THE THREAD
Then you shall appoint for yourselves cities of escape, so that the crusher may flee there, the one who strikes a living soul by straying.The word translated “slayer” comes from the same root, רצח (rāṣaḥ), meaning to commit homicide or slay. Here it describes someone who kills “at unawares”; the surrounding law distinguishes that case from deliberate murder, revealing a precision the English word “kill” can hide.
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