Genesis 9:6

People are very important to God. He said clearly that no-one may kill a person. And God explained an extra reason for this. People are images of God. (See Genesis 1:26.) Therefore, if one kills a person, that is an attack on God.

‘If anyone kills a man, a man shall kill him.’ So people would kill a killer. God did not say that it was wrong. But we may want to know whether it is right nowadays. For that, we must study also what other parts of the Bible say. We must not decide that from this verse only.

v8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons, v9 ‘Look. I make my firm agreement with you. I make it with your family who will come after you. v10 I make it with every animal that is with you. I make it with the birds. I make it with the clean animals that are on the earth. I make it with the animals that are not clean. I make it with everything that came out of the *ark. v11 I make my firm agreement with you. Never in the future will I kill all that is alive by a flood. Never in the future will a flood destroy the earth.’