Topic
Manslayer
11 passages cited, from 4 classic reference works.
These works date from 1884–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Numbers 35:22Easton · Smith · ISBE
But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or have cast upon him any thing without laying of wait,
- Numbers 35:23Easton · Smith · ISBE
Or with any stone, wherewith a man may die, seeing him not, and cast it upon him, that he die, and was not his enemy, neither sought his harm:
- Numbers 35:6Easton · ISBE
And among the cities which ye shall give unto the Levites there shall be six cities for refuge, which ye shall appoint for the manslayer, that he may flee thither: and to them ye shall add forty and two cities.
- Numbers 35:12Easton · ISBE
And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from the avenger; that the manslayer die not, until he stand before the congregation in judgment.
- Deuteronomy 19:5Smith · ISBE
As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour, that he die; he shall flee unto one of those cities,…
- Exodus 22:2Smith
¶ If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.
- Exodus 22:8Smith
If the thief be not found, then the master of the house shall be brought unto the judges, to see whether he have put his hand unto his neighbour’s goods.
- Numbers 35:28ISBE
Because he should have remained in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest: but after the death of the high priest the slayer shall return into the land of his possession.
- Deuteronomy 22:8ISBE
¶ When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence.
- 2 Esdras 1:26ISBE
Whensoever ye shall call upon me, I will not hear you: for ye have defiled your hands with blood, and your feet are swift to commit manslaughter.
- 1 Timothy 1:9ISBE
Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
In the reference works
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 4 references
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 6 references
- Death by a blow in a sudden quarrel. (Numbers 35:22)
- Death by a stone or missile thrown at random. Ibid. (Numbers 35:22,23)
- By the blade of an axe flying from its handle. (19:5) In all these and the like cases the manslayer was allowed to retire to a city of refuge. A thief overtaken at night in the act of stealing might lawfully be put to death, but if the sun had risen the killing him was to be regarded as murder. (Exodus 22:2,8)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 12 references
man'-sla-er (meratstseach, from ratsach (Nu 35:6,12); androphonos (1Ti 1:9)): A term employed with reference to both premeditated and accidental or justifiable killing. In the latter case, an asylum was granted (Nu 35:6,12) until the death of the high priest, after which the slayer was allowed to "return into the land of his possession" (Nu 35:28). The cases in which the manslayer was to be held clearly immune from the punishment imposed on willful killing were:
(1) death by a blow in a sudden quarrel (Nu 35:22);
(2) death by anything thrown at random (Nu 35:22,23);
(3) death by the blade of an axe flying from the handle (De 19:5).
Among the cases in which one would be held responsible for the death of another, is to be counted the neglectful act of building a house without a parapet (De 22:8).
Manslaughter, as a modern legal term, is employed to distinguish unpremeditated killing from coldblooded murder, but formerly (2 Esdras 1:26) it was used in a more general sense.
See MURDER.
Frank E. Hirsch
In the topical indexes
Nave's Topical Bible (1896) · 0 references, grouped by sub-topic
- → See HOMICIDE
- → See CITIES OF REFUGE
Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.