Genesis 42:22

Reuben said to them, “Didn’t I say to you, ‘Don’t sin against the boy,’ but you wouldn’t listen? So now we must pay for shedding his blood!” ¹ 

Ge 4:10; Ge 9:5,6; Ge 37:21,22,29,30; 1Ki 2:32; 2Ch 24:22; Ps 9:12; Eze 3:18; Lu 11:50,51; Lu 23:41; Ac 28:4; Ro 2:15; Re 13:10; Re 16:9

¹ tn Heb “and also his blood, look, it is required.” God requires compensation, as it were, from those who shed innocent blood (see Gen 9:6). In other words, God exacts punishment for the crime of murder.