HOMICIDE IS an occurrence that is viewed as heinous in every human society. However, it embodies the social, religious, and intellectual characteristics of a particular culture. In the Hebrew Bible, the adjudication of homicide typified aspects of Israelite culture and society. The organization of society shaped the process. The victim's family had the right and responsibility to ensure that justice was done. The process, blood feud, was always rule-bound and intrinsically part of the legal process. By contrast, in cuneiform law, the central government exerted control over the process, and the victim's family could participate only in a late stage of the process. In Israel, kinship ties persisted; the lineage, the association of families, was responsible for the protection of family members in the legal arena, and in general, a community-based system of justice prevailed, whereas in Mesopotamia, a bureaucracy had control. This is because ancient Israel perceived itself to be and was in fact a rural, decentralized society with only mild bureaucratic interference and little in the way of specialized professions. Mesopotamia was urban and centralized, with the disintegration of extensive family ties and the rigid control of bureacracy. Biblical law was not lagging behind the rest of society. Blood feud was not an archaic or outmoded institution retained for an offense like homicide. It fit the contours of biblical culture.

Cultic considerations were also a significant factor. Measures had to be taken to prevent the very real effects of spilled blood.