Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 19:10
Thus innocent blood will not be shed in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses addresses Israel on the plains of Moab, concluding the legal codes before they enter Canaan. The verse functions as the rationale for the cities of refuge, preventing unjustified killings in the territory God is granting them.
The words — The phrase דָּם נָקִי (dam na.ki) literally means "innocent blood," and יִשָּׁפֵךְ (yi.sha.feKh) means "it will be shed." The text commands that this shedding must not occur in the land God is giving as an inheritance.
The thread — The prohibition against shedding innocent blood appears in Proverbs 6:17, Isaiah 59:7, and Matthew 27:4. These references trace the theme from legal warning to prophetic condemnation and New Testament acknowledgment of guilt.
Why it lands — The verse demands strict preservation of life within the promised territory by establishing legal accountability for unjust killing. It requires readers to recognize that territorial inheritance carries the responsibility to uphold justice and prevent bloodguilt.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 6:17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
- Isaiah 59:7 Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake.
- Matthew 27:4 “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood,” he said. “What is that to us?” they replied. “You bear the responsibility.”
- Numbers 35:33 Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
- Deuteronomy 19:13 You must show him no pity. You are to purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, that it may go well with you.
- Deuteronomy 21:1 If one is found slain, lying in a field in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,
- 1 Kings 2:31 And the king replied, “Do just as he says. Strike him down and bury him, and so remove from me and from the house of my father the innocent blood that Joab shed.
- 2 Kings 21:16 Moreover, Manasseh shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end, in addition to the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, doing evil in the sight of the LORD.
- 2 Kings 24:4 and also for the innocent blood he had shed. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD was unwilling to forgive.
- Jeremiah 7:6 if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm,