A common misinterpretation translates the Hebrew term 'ratsach' broadly as 'kill' to forbid all forms of taking life, including self-defense, capital punishment, or warfare sanctioned by God elsewhere in Scripture, leading to an absolutist pacifism unsupported by the Bible's distinctions; another error limits it to physical acts alone, ignoring Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5 that it encompasses hatred, anger, and insults as heart-level murder, thus diluting its moral depth.
Exodus 20:13
King James Version (1769)
13 Thou shalt not kill.
Exodus 20:13 issues the sixth commandment prohibiting murder, the unlawful and premeditated taking of innocent human life, underscoring the profound sanctity of life as bearing God's image and calling God's people to uphold justice, mercy, and peace by rejecting vengeance and violence except in contexts authorized by divine law such as self-defense, capital punishment, or just war.