Don’t spread the news in Gath! ¹  Don’t shed even a single tear! ²  In Beth Leaphrah sit in the dust! ³ 

so that this generation may be held accountable ¹  for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning ²  of the world, ³ 

And when the blood of your witness ¹  Stephen was shed, ²  I myself was standing nearby, approving, ³  and guarding the cloaks ⁴  of those who were killing him.’ ⁵ 

When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside at the gate as if to speak privately with him. Joab then stabbed him ¹  in the abdomen and killed him, avenging the shed blood of his brother Asahel. ² 

The Lord says to her, ¹  “Stop crying! Do not shed any more tears! ²  For your heartfelt repentance ³  will be rewarded. Your children will return from the land of the enemy. I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁴ 

They take bribes within you to shed blood. You engage in usury and charge interest; ¹  you extort money from your neighbors. You have forgotten me, ²  declares the sovereign Lord. ³ 

“Son of man, realize that I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you with a jolt, ¹  but you must not mourn or weep or shed tears.

Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: You eat the meat with the blood still in it, ¹  pray to ²  your idols, and shed blood. Do you really think you will possess ³  the land?

But Ephraim bitterly ¹  provoked him to anger; so he will hold him accountable for the blood he has shed, ²  his Lord ³  will repay him for the contempt he has shown. ⁴ 

Egypt will be desolate and Edom will be a desolate wilderness, because of the violence they did to the people of Judah, ¹  in whose land they shed innocent blood.

Faithful men have disappeared ¹  from the land; there are no godly men left. ²  They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; ³  they hunt their own brother with a net. ⁴ 

Because you robbed many countries, ¹  all who are left among the nations ²  will rob you. You have shed human blood and committed violent acts against lands, cities, ³  and those who live in them.

so that on you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, ¹  whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

Reuben continued, ¹  “Don’t shed blood! Throw him into this cistern that is here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” ²  (Reuben said this ³  so he could rescue Joseph ⁴  from them ⁵  and take him back to his father.)

but has not brought it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent ¹  to present it as ²  an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord. He has shed blood, so that man will be cut off from the midst of his people. ³ 

“You know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me – how he murdered two commanders of the Israelite armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. ¹  During peacetime he struck them down like he would in battle; ²  when he shed their blood as if in battle, he stained his own belt and the sandals on his feet. ³ 

May the Lord punish him for the blood he shed; ¹  behind my father David’s back he struck down and murdered with the sword two men who were more innocent and morally upright than he ²  – Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army.

‘“Know for sure that I saw the shed blood of Naboth and his sons yesterday,” says the Lord, “and that I will give you what you deserve right here in this plot of land,” ¹  says the Lord.’ So now pick him up and throw him into this plot of land, just as the Lord said.” ² 

For look, the Lord is coming out of the place where he lives, ¹  to punish the sin of those who live on the earth. The earth will display the blood shed on it; it will no longer cover up its slain. ² 

you are guilty because of the blood you shed and defiled by the idols you made. You have hastened the day of your doom; ¹  the end of your years has come. ²  Therefore I will make ³  you an object of scorn to the nations, an object to be mocked by all lands.