And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.
Surely your blood of your lives will I require. "Your blood of your lives," literally, 'for your lives'-for their advantage, for the preservation and security of your lives (cf. Deuteronomy 4:15; Joshua 23:11, where the Hebrew word is used with the same construction), "will I require," Hebrew 'edrosh (H1875), with the preposition min (H4480), will punish bloodshed, avenge murder (cf. Psalms 9:12).
At the hand of every beast - rather, of every living creature (cf. Exodus 21:28-29).
At the hand of every man's brother - literally, of man his brother; the brother of the murdered, i:e., fellow-man. The import of the passage obviously is, that the Supreme Ruler, setting a high value upon human life, will constantly and vigorously exact a penalty for wilful murders; and that penalty is, blood for blood, life for life;-not, indeed, by an immediate stroke of Almighty vengeance, but by the delegation of His power to men in authority, who are "ministers of God for good." The fourth part establishes a new power for protecting life-the institution of the civil magistrate (Romans 13:4), armed with public and official authority to repress the commission of violence and crime. Such a power had not previously existed in patriarchal society.