ra.tsach denotes killing a person, especially as a prohibited or punishable act, while refuge laws also apply it to an unintentional killer.

The term most often identifies the person who has killed in the legal setting of refuge, judgment, and blood vengeance, including one who struck a neighbor without intent. Elsewhere it names or prohibits violent killing, including attacks marked by enmity, murder of vulnerable people, and a slain victim.

1. A killer addressed by refuge and judgment provisions · dominant

   Qal active participles repeatedly identify the person who struck another and may flee to a city of refuge. In Deuteronomy 19:4 the person struck his neighbor “without knowledge” and without prior hatred; in Numbers 35:25 the congregation rescues that person from the avenger of blood and returns him to the refuge city. Numbers 35:16 also uses the participle for one who strikes with an iron implement so that the victim dies, showing that the legal passages distinguish circumstances and judgment within the same killing terminology.

   Deuteronomy 19:4Joshua 20:3Numbers 35:12Numbers 35:16Numbers 35:25Numbers 35:31
2. Violent killing or murder as an act · common

   The Qal imperfect is used in direct prohibitions in Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17. In Deuteronomy 22:26, the sequential perfect describes a man rising against his neighbor and killing a person; Hosea 6:9 portrays a company of priests committing such violence on the way to Shechem. The Niphal participle in Judges 20:4 describes the Levite’s concubine as the murdered woman.

   Exodus 20:13Deuteronomy 5:17Deuteronomy 22:26Hosea 4:2Hosea 6:9Judges 20:4

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB varies among “murder,” “murderer,” “killer,” “manslayer,” and “kills” in the legal and violent-killing contexts. These English variations are best read as presentations of each verse’s clause rather than separate definitions.