Avenger Of Blood

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Avenger Of Blood . The practice of blood-revenge has been very widely spread among societies in a certain stage of civilization, where there has been no central authority to enforce law and order, and where the certainty of retaliation has been the only guarantee for security of life. Among the Semites the custom was in full force from the earliest times, and it is still the only spring of order in Arabia. It depends for its maintenance upon the solidarity of the clan or tribe. All the members of the tribe, whatever may be the immediate parental relationship, are counted as being of one blood; a wrong done to one is a wrong done to all, to be avenged if necessary by all the offended clan upon all the clan of the offender. The phrase used by the Arabs is, ‘Our blood has been shed.’

Of the form of blood-revenge that involved the whole clan or tribe in the murder of a single individual there are still traces in the OT ( Joshua 7:24 ,   2 Kings 9:25 ). Naturally, however, the duty of avenging the shedding of blood fell primarily upon him who was nearest of kin to the slaughtered man. This next of kin was called the gô’çl . The word in Hebrew law was used in a wide sense for him whose duty it was to redeem the property or the person of an impoverished or enslaved relative (  Leviticus 25:26;   Leviticus 25:47-49 ,   Ruth 4:1 ff.), but it came to be used specially of the man who had to perform this most tragic duty of kinship. The steady effort of Hebrew law was to limit this ancient custom so as to ensure that a blood feud should not perpetuate itself to the ruin of a whole clan, and that deliberate murder and accidental homicide should not come under the same penalty. It is possible to trace with some definiteness the progress of this sentiment by which the gô’çl was gradually transformed from being the irresponsible murderer of a possibly blameless manslayer to being practically the executioner of a carefully considered sentence passed by the community. See Kin [Next of].

R. Bruce Taylor.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Avenger of Blood. It was, and even still is, a common practice among nations of patriarchal habits, that the nearest of kin should, as a matter of duty, avenge the death of a murdered relative. The law of Moses was very precise in its directions on the subject of retaliation. 1. The wilful murderer was to be put to death without the right of redemption. The nearest relative of the deceased became the authorized avenger of blood.  Numbers 35:19. 2. The law of retaliation was not to extend beyond the immediate offender.  Deuteronomy 24:16;  2 Kings 14:6;  2 Chronicles 25:4;  Jeremiah 31:29-30;  Ezekiel 18:20. 3. The shedder of blood could fly to one of six Levitical cities, appointed as cities of refuge, and be safe, until proved guilty of wilful murder.  Numbers 35:22-25;  Deuteronomy 19:4-6.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 2 Samuel 14:7,11 Exodus 21:13 Numbers 35:13 Deuteronomy 19:1,9 Goel   Deuteronomy 19:11-13 Numbers 35:25

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

He who prosecuted the man-slayer under the law was called the avenger of blood, and had a right to slay the person, if he found him without a city of refuge. See Goel .

Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology

See Kinsman-Redeemer

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( גּאֵל , Goa', fully גּאֵל הִדָּם .), a term applied to the nearest relative of a murdered person, inasmuch as he had the right, and on him devolved the obligation of killing the murderer ( 2 Samuel 14:7;  2 Samuel 14:11) wherever he met him (outside any of the cities of refuge). Respecting this custom, universal among the Hebrews from the earliest times ( Genesis 10:14;  Genesis 27:45), as among other nations of antiquity (e.g. the Greeks; see Welker, p. 361 sq.; Wachsmuth, Hellen. Alterth. 3, 241, 284; the inhabitants of Trachonitis; see Josephus, Ant. 16, 9, 1), and in the East to this day among the Arabians, Persians, Abyssinians, Druses, Circassians, etc. (see Chardin, 3, 417 sq.; Niebuhr, Beschr. p. 33 sq.; Reisen, 2, 430; East Ind. Mission. Her. 3, 491; Burckhardt, Trav. 2, 872,1011; Lobo, Relation d'Abyss. p. 123 sq.), the Jewish lawgiver, in order to restrain its abuse, appointed ( Exodus 21:13;  Numbers 35:9 sq.;  Deuteronomy 19:1 sq.; comp. Joseph. Ant. 4, 7, 4) six cities of refuge ( עָרֵי מַקְלָט ) in different parts of the country, to which the manslayer might have recourse, and where, if his offense had not been premeditated, he might remain in safety till the death of the high-priest at that time acting should release him from the danger of retribution, while, on the other hand, the willful murderer was to be in any case surrendered to the pursuer for vengeance. If, however, the man-slayer quitted the city ( Deuteronomy 19:6), or even went beyond the prescribed limits of its environs ( Numbers 35:25 sq.), the avenger might kill him with impunity. (See Asylum). A similar provision prevailed among the Athenians (see Wachsmuth, Hellen. Alterth. II, 1:268; Hefter, Athen. Gerichtsverf. p. 136) for the rescue of the accidental man-slayer. (See generally Michaelis, Mos. Recht, 2, 401 sq.; 6:32 sq.; Hoffmann, in the Hall. Encycl. 11:89 sq.; Jahn, Archaol. II, 2:372 sq.). (See Blood- Revenge).