What Does Genesis 9:6 Mean?
Whoever pours out the blood of man, by man his blood shall be poured out, for in the shape of God he made man.
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
Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.THE KEY
The verse turns the same act of pouring out back upon the one who spills blood, because the human bears God’s image.
THE MEANING
Human blood is not disposable: the verse places its shedding under human consequence because the person bears the image of God. The one who spills another person’s blood faces the same measure named in the verse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a human life can be erased without consequence: spilled blood returns as a claim against the one who spills it.
THE ROOT
שֹׁפֵךְ
shofekh
GROWS FROM
שׁפך
pour out, spill
“pours out” in this verse is shofekh. The Hebrew repeats שׁפך (shaphakh, pour out): first a person spills blood, then that person’s blood is poured out. The same verb describes pouring out the heart before God, so the root carries the image of outflow; here the sentence turns that flow back upon the killer.
ALSO GROWS
shaphakh dam: pour out blood; shed blood
שפך דם
This is the verse’s verb-and-object phrase, repeated first actively and then passively.
shaphakh lev: pour out the heart
שפך לב
Lamentations 2:19 uses the same verb for pouring out the heart; the object changes, while the sense of an outflow remains.
צֶלֶם
tselem
GROWS FROM
צלם
image, form, representation
“shape” in this verse is tselem. The reason clause grounds the sentence in the image the human bears: harm to a human reaches what carries God’s representation. The same word describes Seth as Adam’s image, so tselem also speaks of resemblance carried through human relationship.
ALSO GROWS
tselem Elohim: image of God
צֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים
The verse names this image as the reason human bloodshed bears a consequence.
tsalmo: his image
צַלְמוֹ
Genesis 5:3 uses this same word for Seth as Adam’s image, showing the word’s relational sense.
אָדָם
adam
GROWS FROM
אדם
human, humankind; linked in Genesis wordplay with the ground
“man” in this verse is adam. אָדָם (adam, human) contains a sound echo of דָּם (dam, blood): the shared consonants keep the blood audible within the word for the human being it belongs to. אֲדָמָה (adamah, ground) also echoes the human name, holding earth-formed life together with the image of God.
ALSO GROWS
adam: human, humankind; also the name Adam
אָדָם
The verse’s word covers humanity generally while retaining the sound of a particular human name.
adamah: ground, soil
אֲדָמָה
Genesis 2:7 plays the human’s name against the ground from which the human is formed.
THE PATTERN
Human life is guarded because the human bears God’s image.
And God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.He redeems their living soul from deceit and violence, and their blood is weighty in his eyes.With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who have been made according to the likeness of God.THE THREAD
And the LORD said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.The Hebrew word דָּם (dam, blood) appears in both verses. Genesis 4:10 shows blood poured into the ground still crying out; Genesis 9:6 names the image of God as the reason human bloodshed bears a consequence.
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