GEN723 (Continued [[EXOD549]] from Exodus 21:14 neighbor SPERO 126-30). [I]n connection with Exodus 21:14, the Talmud was astonished to think that the Torah would exclude the non-Jew from the law which condemns to death a man who deliberately murders his neighbor. After all, even before the Sinai legislation, the Torah had proclaimed [this verse]. But here again the rabbis explained that without a doubt he who deliberately kills any human being has violated the sixth commandment and would be duly punished by heaven. In restricting this particular law the rabbis were responding to the general hermeneutical principle that whenever the text permits, interpretations tending to limit the area in which the death penalty might apply are to be favored. [The Talmud (Sanhedrin 81b) relates how the rabbis had stringent requirements for witnesses and for warning (hazharah) in cases involving capital punishment which were designed to obviate the death penalty. They believed that since the judicial process, with its reliance on witnesses, did not yield certain knowledge, it was preferable to leave the matter to the justice of heaven when a person’s life was at stake]. SPERO 130-1