Murder Stories in the Bible

    Murder stories are sordid, awe-inspiring and fearful. They are also sometimes graphic. While biblical accounts occasionally re-create the means by which a murder is committed, that a murder occurred is much more important to biblical writers than how it occurred.
    The first murder story in the Bible (Gen 4:1–16) is perhaps prototypical. The motive for the murder is envy. The design for murder is an innocent invitation to the victim to “go out to the field” (Gen 4:8 RSV). Because the focus of the story is the moral monstrosity of murder and the sanctity of life, we are given no information about the means of murder. The murderer assumes that the field itself is sufficient to conceal the body, as Cain attempts to evade God’s question about where Abel’s corpse resides. The judgment of God in this story is its climax, as we are led (and this is common in murder stories) to feel a certain revulsion against the act. An aura of the sanctity of life hovers over the entire story. No other act carries such a strong sense of wrongness as does murder. Cain’s descendant Lamech is as hardened as his progenitor, boasting of his murder in revenge for a wounding (Gen 4:23–24).
    The story of Ehud’s assassination of Eglon (Judg 3:15–30) is more graphic in its details than the story of Cain and Abel. The account focuses on the cleverness of the hero—a southpaw who carries his weapon on the unexpected right side (in effect a disguise) and manages to be alone with his unsuspecting victim. Ehud’s words are double-edged like his sword—deceitfully couched in terms of a secret message from God. The assassin is clever at stabbing his obese victim, clever at concealing his weapon, clever in making his getaway (locking the doors of the king’s roof chamber, leading the king’s attendants to assume that he is going to the toilet). Told in the mocking tone of slave literature, this murder story is filled with graphic details, including the fatness of the victim’s belly, the king’s fat closing over the blade, and the piercing of the king’s intestine so that dung seeps out.
    The preferred weapon for murder in the OT is the spear, and the belly is the destination of choice. Abner pierces Asahel with a spear that went through the belly and “came out at his back” (2 Sam 2:23 RSV), and Joab does the same to Amasa, whose bowels spill to the ground (2 Sam 20:10). A homemade version of a spear will work fine as need arises: Jael follows up her ideal hospitality to Sisera by driving a tent peg through his skull as he sleeps (Judg 4:21; 5:25–27). The murder of Absalom has a ritual feel to it: after Joab thrusts three darts into his heart as he dangles from an oak tree, ten of Joab’s armor-bearers surround Absalom and strike him (2 Sam 18:9–15). Stoning is the means of Naboth’s martyrdom (1 Kings 21:1–16). Sometimes physical abuse rather than a weapon is the means of murder, as when the Levite’s concubine is raped throughout the night and dies in the morning (Judg 19:22–26).
    The victim’s lack of suspicion is a typical feature in murder stories. Ish-bosheth is the classic case, murdered while taking his noonday nap in his bedroom (2 Sam 3:5–7). Uriah thinks he is simply following military orders when he goes to frontline duty and certain death (2 Sam 11:15). Assassinations are usually committed by people within the court, rendering the lack of suspicion on the part of the victim all the more surprising. Menahem assassinates Shallum to gain his throne (2 Kings 15:14). Similar motives prompt the sons of Sennacherib king of Assyria, who is assassinated while worshiping in the house of his god (2 Kings 19:36–37). Joash’s servants murder him as he lies wounded on his bed (2 Chron 24:25).
    The imagery of OT murder stories thus combines the violent with the domestic or commonplace. It is true that bodies are mutilated with weapons, but the victims are usually at ease in their home environment when the horror is visited on them.
    Although the killing of Jesus was technically an execution carried out by judicial bodies and designated executioners rather than a murder perpetrated by intrigue in a moment of secrecy, it has overtones of the archetypal murder story. It is a story of horrible mutilation and torture. It is done (like political assassinations) out of motives of personal envy, not because Jesus had broken a law. Significantly, Stephen in his speech at his own martyrdom claims that the Jews “betrayed and murdered” the “Righteous One” (Acts 7:52 RSV).
    See also ABEL; CAIN; CRIME AND PUNISHMENT; DEATH; MARTYR.