Whoso sheddeth man's blood, wilfully and unwarrantably. For there is a double exception to this law:
1. Of casual murder, expressed Numbers 35:31 Deuteronomy 19:4.
2. Of death inflicted by the hand of the magistrate for crimes deserving it, mentioned in the following words, and elsewhere. By man, i.e. by the hand of man, namely, the magistrate, Romans 13:4; who is hereby empowered and required, upon pain of my highest displeasure, to inflict this punishment. See Exodus 21:12 Leviticus 24:17 Matthew 26:57. Or, for that man, i.e. for that man's sake, whose blood he hath shed, which cries for vengeance. In the image of God made he man; so that murder is not only an offence against man, but also an injury to God, and a contempt of that image of God which all men are obliged to reverence and maintain, and especially magistrates, who being my vicegerents and servants, are therefore under a particular obligation to punish those who deface and destroy it.