Genesis 9:5

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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.

Verse 4 Read Chapter 9 Verse 6

Ambrose of Milan

AD 397

“For your lifeblood and your souls I will require a reckoning of every beast and of the hand of man.” He compared human iniquity to beastly wickedness and considered it to be even more culpable than the wildness of the beasts. For he added, “of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.” Actually beasts have nothing in common with us, are not united to us by any fraternal bond. If they harm a man, they harm somebody who is stranger, do not transgress the rights of nature, do not obliterate the affection of brotherhood. Therefore one who makes an attempt on his brother’s life commits a more serious sin. For this reason the Lord threatened a more severe punishment by saying “of the hand of his brother I will require a reckoning of the blood of man.” Is not perhaps a brother someone of a rational nature come forth from a certain womb, so that we are united by a generation from the same mother? One single nature is mother of all humanity. Therefore we are all brothers generated by... Read More

1 min1/5

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Ephrem The Syrian

AD 373

God requires the blood now and in the future. He requires it now in the case of a death that he decreed for a murderer, and also a stoning with which a goring bull is to be stoned. At the end, at the time of the resurrection, God will require that animals return all they ate from the flesh of man. God said, “From the hand of a man and of his brother I will require the life of a man,” just as satisfaction for the blood of Abel was required from Cain, that is, “whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.” –.

1 min2/5

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George Leo Haydock

AD 1849

At the hand; a Hebrew idiom. God orders an ox to be stoned, which had slain a man, Exodus xxi. 28. Man, (hominis) every man, (viri) brother. By these three terms, God inculcates a horror of bloodshed; because we are all of the same nature, ought to act like generous men, and to consider every individual as a brother, since we spring from the same stock. (Menochius)

< 1 min3/5

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John Chrysostom

AD 407

“Whoever sheds someone’s blood, his own will be shed in payment for that person’s blood, because I have made the human person in God’s image.” Consider, I ask you, how much fear he struck in them with that remark. He is saying even if you are not restrained from murderous hands by kinship or by a sense of fellowship of nature, and even if you thrust aside all brotherly feeling and become completely committed to a bloody murder, you must think twice. Consider the fact that the person has been created in God’s image. Mark the degree of honor accorded him by God! Think on the fact that he has received authority over all creation. Then you will give up your murderous intent. So what does he mean? If someone has committed countless murders and shed so much blood, how can he give adequate satisfaction simply by the shedding of his own blood? Do not have these thoughts, human being that you are. Instead you do well to consider in advance that you will receive an immortal body that will have t... Read More

1 min4/5

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John of Damascus

AD 749

Moreover, sacred Scripture, too, testifies to the fact that there will be a resurrection of the body. Indeed, God already had said to Noah after the flood, “Even as the green herbs have I delivered them all to you: saving that flesh with blood of its life you shall not eat. And I will require your blood of your lives, at the hand of every beast I will require it. And at the hand of every man I will require the life of his brother. Whosoever shall shed man’s blood, for that blood his blood will be shed: for I made man to the image of God.” How can he require the blood of men at the hand of every beast, unless he raises the bodies of those who die? For beasts will not die in the place of human beings.

1 min5/5

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Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20