“a time to kill…” (Ecclesiastes 3: 3)

Does the Bible contradict itself when it comes to killing? In the Decalogue, we are commanded not to kill. Then, in Ecclesiastes, we are told there is a time to kill. If we are not supposed to kill, how, then, is there ever a time to kill?

What about the multiple times that God orders His own chosen people to kill animals, individuals and whole cities? Added on top of this are questions concerning the thousands of deaths which God Himself is responsible for such as the occupants of Sodom and Gomorrah and the first born of the Egyptians. Can all of this killing ever be cleared up?

The first attempt to resolve this apparent contradiction is to note that the word for kill in Exodus 20, where we are commanded not to kill, is a different word than the word used in Ecclesiastes 3. In Exodus, the Hebrew word is rasah and it essentially means to murder. The Hebrew word used in Ecclesiastes is harag which means more generally to slay, slaughter or destroy. The net result is the same with either word. Something ends up dead. However, the principle difference is that the commandment refers specifically to the intentional taking of a human life as in murder.

Then, just because there is killing in the Bible does not mean that all the killing in the Bible is right. Cain killed his brother Abel and that wasn’t right. David killed Uriah and that wasn’t right. The Romans killed Jesus and that wasn’t right. We cannot confuse the existence of a thing in the Bible with God’s endorsement of that thing.

Next, it must be admitted that while there may be several situations in which it might be “appropriate” to kill, killing is never a good thing. Whether is it the killing of a lamb done by a priest on the altar; or the killing done by a soldier in a just war; or the killing committed by a civilian in a clear case of self-defense; or the killing done by the corrections department on death row, killing is always an unfortunate and extreme resolution of a conflict.

Rampant gun violence in our cities, repeated and criminal shootings of our children on the streets at the hands of police, the cowboy, wild-west mentality loose in our society and a gun culture which has resulted in multiple mass murders have all brought killing front and center to our minds.

The bottom line is that even if killing can ever be justified as right, it certainly should be rare because there must be another way. The God of the Old Testament was a God who literally was behind the death of thousands. In the New Testament, that same God chose another way. He became flesh, dwelt among us and submitted Himself to be killed in order to save the lives of billions.