Question Answered 2010<\/a>” and thought your advice was appropriate to the questions.<\/p>\nSo here is my question:\u00a0 I was sharing a conversation with my teen-aged daughter.\u00a0 I told her how hurtful images run through my mind from time to time.\u00a0 I was out for a morning walk when I first see three small dogs attempting to cross to the other side of the street.\u00a0 With great speed, a motorist sped up and runs over one of the three dogs.\u00a0 I stopped walking. I heard the car speed up, I heard the car’s tires run over the dog and crush its bones. The distressed cry the dog made as he was run over still gives me the shakes. I immediately put my hands to my mouth in shock. The car speeds off. I walk over to the greatly injured animal to hear his last soft yipe then it died. The other two dogs were looking back at the injured dog as to say get up come on we are waiting. I returned home with the disturbing sounds and images in my mind.<\/p>\n
As my daughter listened to the story she asked me “wouldn’t God consider that murder and punish that individual that ran over that poor animal?”<\/p>\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
The Hebrew word for murder is\u00a0ratsach<\/em>. It is never used in connection with the taking of the life of an animal; it is only used in connection with the death of a human whether purposeful or accidental. The only time\u00a0ratsach<\/em>\u00a0is used in an approved way is in Numbers 35:30 where it states the murderer (ratsach<\/em>) is to be put to death (ratsach<\/em>). In this usage, it emphasizes that the murderer would receive back what was due.<\/p>\nThe killing of the dog was an example of cruelty to an animal. “A righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel<\/em>” (Proverbs 12:10). It is still wrong, but for a different reason than murder.<\/p>\n\tResponse:<\/h2>\n
Thank you for that information. I will let my daughter know that the man’s action was an unnecessary act of cruelty to an animal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Honestly, I don’t know how I stumbled onto your web site,\u00a0 but I am glad that I did.\u00a0 I read through the majority of the “Question Answered 2010” and thought your advice was appropriate to the questions. So here is my question:\u00a0 I was sharing a conversation with my teen-aged daughter.\u00a0 I told her…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[242,406],"class_list":["post-22158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-animal-rights","tag-murder"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":48149,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-deal-with-a-woman-who-brings-her-dog-to-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":22158,"position":0},"title":"How do you deal with a woman who brings her dog to worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have a lady who has been attending worship with us for over a month. She has since placed her membership with our congregation. This morning when she entered the building she had a little Chihuahua dog in her arms. She stated that it was her service dog and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62282,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/dogs-dont-go-to-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":22158,"position":1},"title":"Dogs Don\u2019t Go to Heaven","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Revelation 22:12-17 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When we want to illustrate a point, we often will search through life around us to find something similar. It is especially good if the audience understands the example \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Those points make a lasting impression on us because we are familiar with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94020,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-god-be-charged-with-murder\/","url_meta":{"origin":22158,"position":2},"title":"Can God Be Charged with Murder?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 18, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton with the help of Copilot The biblical answer is \"No,\" and Scripture gives multiple reasons why. The Bible consistently teaches that God cannot be guilty of murder, because murder is the unlawful taking of life, and God, as the Creator and Judge of all life, has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5763,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-handle-a-problem-with-the-neighbors-dogs\/","url_meta":{"origin":22158,"position":3},"title":"How do you handle a problem with the neighbor’s dogs?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 1, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: As I went to mail at the mailbox today, I noticed a spot where a large dog fertilized our front yard. The owner of most of this subdivision is living temporarily in one of the homes a few doors up from us until his home in the country is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17081,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-raise-dogs-for-fighting\/","url_meta":{"origin":22158,"position":4},"title":"Is it wrong to raise dogs for fighting?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is God's word about raising dogs, such as pit bulls, on chains their whole life and selling them for fighting or fighting them yourself? Answer: In Hebrew society, dogs were a despised animal. They were domesticated for guard duties (Job 30:1). But the problem is that there were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41828,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-avoid-an-abortion-and-when-an-abortion-takes-place-who-is-guilty-of-the-murder\/","url_meta":{"origin":22158,"position":5},"title":"How do you avoid an abortion and when an abortion takes place, who is guilty of the murder?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good afternoon, I am a member of the Lord's church. I read one of your\u00a0articles on abortion\u00a0and taught our brethren over here. It raised a lot of questions. My questions are: Since abortion is a sin, a sister who is pregnant but doesn't want to abort her child and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}