³¹ Moreover you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer who is subject to the death penalty; a murderer must be put to death.

²⁸ When the news came to Joab—for Joab had supported Adonijah though he had not supported Absalom—Joab fled to the tent of the Lord and grasped the horns of the altar.^{(A) 29} When it was told King Solomon, “Joab has fled to the tent of the Lord and now is beside the altar,” Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, strike him down.”^{(B) 30} So Benaiah came to the tent of the Lord and said to him, “The king commands, ‘Come out.’ ” But he said, “No, I will die here.” Then Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, “Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me.” ³¹ The king replied to him, “Do as he has said, strike him down and bury him, and thus take away from me and from my father’s house the guilt for the blood that Joab shed without cause.^{(C) 32} The Lord will bring back his bloody deeds on his own head because, without the knowledge of my father David, he attacked and killed with the sword two men more righteous and better than he: Abner son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah.^{(D) 33} So shall their blood come back on the head of Joab and on the head of his descendants forever, but to David, and to his descendants, and to his house, and to his throne there shall be peace from the Lord forevermore.”^{(E) 34} Then Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up and struck him down and killed him, and he was buried at his own house near the wilderness.

¹³ David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan said to David, “Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die.^(A)

¹¹ “But if someone at enmity with another lies in wait and attacks and takes the life of that person and flees into one of these cities, ¹² then the elders of the killer’s city shall send to have the culprit taken from there and handed over to the avenger of blood to be put to death. ¹³ Show no pity; you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that it may go well with you.^(A)

¹⁴ But if someone willfully attacks and kills another by treachery, you shall take the killer from my altar for execution.^(A)

⁵ For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.^(A)