EXOD460 The sixth word: “Thou shall not murder,” may present a special difficulty. Some may argue that even if every other word from three through ten is a moral rule [i.e., per the author, morals rules permit exceptions, unlike moral principles, which do not -- AJL], surely this sixth word permits no exceptions and is a moral principle. What is the correct translation of לא תרצח, the sixth commandment? “Thou shalt not kill,” is the King James translation. “Thou shalt not murder,” is the Jewish Publication Society rendition. Neither translation is completely accurate. The King James version falters because the English verb, “to kill,” is far broader in meaning than the Hebrew verb, רצח. The prohibition, “Thou shalt not kill,” rules out a wide spectrum of acts including those of legitimate self-defense. The Hebrew original has no such intention. Any attempt, therefore, to base a claim of conscientious objection to military service on the sixth word is not justified by the Hebrew text. The Jewish Publication Society translation, “Thou shalt not murder,” on the other hand, is too narrow. For the Hebrew לא תרצח goes beyond premeditated (first degree), and intentional but not premeditated (second degree) murder to include unintentional killing (manslaughter). Stamm and Andrew, The Ten Commandments in Recent Research. Alec R. Allenson, 1967, pp. 98,99. Thus, the Hebrew phrase לא תרצח prohibits not only the malicious, but even the careless destruction of human life. It applies, among other things, to such modern instruments of manslaughter as mercury poisoning caused by the irresponsible discharge of industrial waste into waters which flow into fishing grounds. In the previous chapter, I mentioned as one of the less comprehensive moral principles, the principle that killing for the sake of killing is always wrong. The sixth word obviously covers much more territory than this moral principle. The moral principle has no exceptions, but I believe the sixth word does--certainly cases of euthanasia, for example. Perhaps murder would be justified in the case of a man in agony who was hopelessly caught in the burning wreckage of a plane and pleads to be shot. In regard to manslaughter we can certainly conceive of a group required to use, for its defense, dangerous weapons such as landmines which could cause fatal accidents. Despite these exceptions, the sixth word remains the deepest of the moral rules, the closest to essential morality. It rightly heads the second tablet. It should be set aside only with supreme reluctance.