Matthew Poole and continuators on Genesis 9:5

5. And surely your blood of your Lives will I require : At the hand of every Beast will I require it , and at the hand of Man, at the hand of every mans Brother will require the Life of Man.

Or, For, as the particle is oft taken: This being the reason of the foregoing prohibition.

Or, Of your Souls▪ i. e. Of your persons; the word Soul being oft put for Person. Or, your Blood which is for your lives, (i. e.) which by the spirits it generates is the great preserver and instrument of your lives and of all your vital actions, and the great bond which ties your Souls and Bodies together. The sense of the place is, If I am thus carefull for the blood of Beasts, be assured I will be much more solicitous for the blood of men, when it shall be shed by unjust and violent hands.

I will make inquisition for the Author of such bloodshed, as I did after Cain, and consequently punish him: For this phrase of requiring implies punishment. See Gen. 42. 22. Deut. 18. 19. compared with Acts 3. 23. Psal. 9. 13. If Magistrates neglect this duty I my self will avenge it by my own hand.

Not for the punishment of the Beast, which being under no Law, is not [illegible: 1 word] of sin, nor punishment; but for caution to men, for whose use seeing they were made, it is no abuse of them, if they be destroyed for mans benefit. Compare Exod. 21. 28. Levit. 20, 15.

This is added, either 1. as an aggravation of the crime, because the man slain was the Brother of the Murderer, all men being made of one bl[illegible: 1+ letters]od, Act. 17, 26. And having one Father, even God, Mal. 2. 10. and Adam too. Upon which accounts all men are frequently called one anothers [illegible: 1 word], as is manifest from Gen. 26. 31, and 29. 4. Levit. 19. 17. and 25. 14. and 26. 37. and from many other places of Scripture. Or 2. As an assurance of the punishment of the Murderer, without any exception of the nearest relation, which though it makes the sin greater▪ yet many times is a security against punishment, the murtherer easily finding favour and pardon from his Parents and dear Friends. But the former sense seems the better.

Marginal references: Heb. Souls.; Heb Soul.