FOR THE ancient Israelites, the spilling of blood in a homicide was an event of profound consequence because of the blood itself, not simply because of the physical harm of the assault. The blood that was spilled polluted. One of the statutes on homicide concludes with an explicit statement of the motivation for the statute: The blood of the victim pollutes the land (Num 35:33, 34):

Warnings about purging evil from the midst of the Israelites appear with frequency in Deuteronomy (Deut 13:6; 17:7, 12; 21:21; 22:21, 22, 24; 24:7), but only with regard to the case of homicide does the warning specify that it is the blood of the innocent victim that must be removed. Deut 19:10–13, another of the statutes on homicide, warns the Israelites not to have pity upon the murderer so that the innocent blood of the victim can be purged: