Genesis 9:5 Commentary and Bible Study

It is very often said that here is the basis of civil law in the Bible. Man is not only protected from the beasts by God putting a fear of man in them, but there is this tremendous prohibition of human murder.First, God will require man’s blood when it is shed by any beast; he will avenge the shedding of human blood by taking the life of the animal that killed man. The dread of man that God had put within the beasts would not altogether restrain them from taking human life. Who will enforce this? God would require man’s blood and carry it out in his own way, but where man was aware of it, the enforcement of divine justice would be made man’s responsibility. There was indeed a provision under the law to enforce exactly this: ‘If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit’ (Exodus 21:28). God’s justice was under the law given as a responsibility to man, and the animal was to be put to death. In this way, human life was shown to be of such value to God (and consequently, to man), that even a dumb beast without conscience or moral nature would not be allowed to live if it caused man’s death. But far more serious, and far more common is the taking of man’s life by man. It is more serious not because the value of the life taken is any different, but because the one who takes it is a moral agent, made in the image of God, and a new element is present in this outrage. Man cannot deliberately take the life of another man without being aware that he is depriving another of what he values most: the gift of life, conscious life, intelligent life. This still allows room for a distinction between murder and manslaughter, as the refinements of the law will show, and it still leaves room for the taking of life as a legitimate act of war which Scripture does not treat as murder, but the basic prohibition and sentence is here put in place.The reference to every man’s brother immediately makes us think of Cain and Abel. Noah knew all that we know about this tragic event, for the sacred text has come via him, and the oral traditions that were no doubt preserved among the godly line, must have been known to his family. Yes, God required Abel’s blood of Cain, and it cried out to the Lord from the ground for revenge, and God was not deaf to those cries. But the reference to brother may indicate the ghastly nature of every act of murder, for all men may be regarded as brothers of each other, so that there is always this unnatural element to the crime.