Blood, as symbol of guilt

Blood is often used as an image of people's sin and guilt, and the judgment which follows. Blood-guilt is ascribed to those who are responsible for the shedding of innocent blood.

Blood as an image of sin and guilt

Isaiah 59:2–3 See also Leviticus 20:9–13, Leviticus 20:27; 2 Samuel 1:14–16; Isaiah 1:15–18; Nahum 3:1; Acts 18:6

But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear. For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice.

Blood as an image of judgment

Isaiah 34:5–6 See also Exodus 7:14–21; Psalm 78:44, Psalm 105:29; Acts 2:19–20; Joel 2:30–31

When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, then it will come down upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction. The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood. It drips with fat — with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

Blood as a sign of the end times

Acts 2:19–20 See also Joel 2:30–31; Revelation 6:12–15, Revelation 8:7–9, Revelation 16:3–6

I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and glorious Day of the Lord.

Blood-guilt, the result of shedding innocent blood

Examples of blood-guilt

Genesis 4:8–11 See also 2 Samuel 1:14–16, 2 Samuel 4:5–12; Ezekiel 35:5–9; Habakkuk 2:12; Matthew 27:3–8, Matthew 27:24; Acts 5:28

Then Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. And the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I do not know!” he answered. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” “What have you done?” replied the LORD. “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

The right to avenge blood-guilt under the law

Deuteronomy 19:11–13 See also Numbers 35:16–28

If, however, a man hates his neighbor and lies in wait, attacks him and kills him, and then flees to one of these cities, the elders of his city must send for him, bring him back, and hand him over to the avenger of blood to die. You must show him no pity. You are to purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, that it may go well with you.

Restraint to avoid further blood-guilt

Deuteronomy 4:41–42 See also Genesis 4:15; Numbers 35:6–34; Deuteronomy 19:4–10; Joshua 20:1–9

Then Moses set aside three cities across the Jordan to the east to which a manslayer could flee after killing his neighbor unintentionally without prior malice. To save one’s own life, he could flee to one of these cities:

Blood-guilt cannot be forgotten

Genesis 9:5–6 See also Genesis 4:10–16, Genesis 42:22; 1 Kings 2:28–33; Isaiah 26:21; Matthew 23:30–31

And surely I will require the life of any man or beast by whose hand your lifeblood is shed. I will demand an accounting from anyone who takes the life of his fellow man: Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.