Rabbi Natan says: Justice is fitting for God, as He upholds it and does not show favor, as it is stated: “For I am the Lord, who performs kindness, justice and righteousness in the land” (Jeremiah 9:23), as we find regarding Abraham, who withstood ten ordeals, but He did not show him favor even for one matter,63This translation is based on the textual emendation of Rabbi David Luria. as He said: “Know, that your descendants will be strangers” (Genesis 15:13).64When God told him that he would inherit the land, he asked: “How do I know that I will inherit it?” (Genesis 15:8).
It was due to this question that God decreed that Abraham’s descendants would be slaves (see Nedarim 32a). Nevertheless, he asked God to uphold justice, as it is stated: “Will the Judge of the earth not implement justice?” (Genesis 18:25). See how King Solomon was caught in a trap, as it is stated: “He traps the wise with their craftiness” (Job 5:13). How many spirits and demons did Solomon conquer, and he instructed justice for everyone, but ultimately, he was trapped in his old age,65He sought to outsmart the Torah and allowed himself to marry many wives, purchase many horses, and amass much silver and gold, in opposition to Torah law.
He justified this by asserting that he would not fall prey to the dangers that the Torah wished to prevent by the institution of these laws (see Sanhedrin 21b). and he began fearing the spirits, as it is stated: “Each man, a sword on his thigh, from fear in the nights” (Song of Songs 3:8). Initially, the spirits were terrified of him, and ultimately, he began to fear them. That is why there is no mitzva that the Holy One blessed be He did not caution in its regard,66The Torah hints to the punishment for the violation of each commandment. as it is stated: “If a man sells his daughter as a maidservant” (Exodus 21:7).
What caused this to happen to him? It is the transgression that he violated vis-à-vis others.67He mistreated his Hebrew slave, which is the topic of the verses immediately prior to this verse. “One who strikes a man and he dies” (Exodus 21:12). What caused this to happen to him?
The fact that he did not look into the Torah, in which it is written: “One who sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed” (Genesis 9:6). This is analogous to a person who marred the statue of the king and ascended to the platform.68For judgment. The king said to him: ‘Did you not read in my royal edicts that anyone who touches my statue is to be eliminated? Why did you not spare yourself?’
So too, if a person kills a person of Israel, it is as though he removes the image of a king, and he is sentenced and has no life, as man was created in the image of the ministering angels. If he kills unwittingly, God provides him with a place to which he can flee. If he kills intentionally, even if he is the High Priest, he is killed. You have no one greater than Saul, as it is stated: “Daughters of Israel, weep over Saul” (II Samuel 1:24).
Who collected from him the blood that was on his hands when he died? It was not Israel who collected it, but rather the Givonites, as it is stated: “Let seven men of his sons be given to us [and we will hang them]” (II Samuel 21:6). The priests forgave him,69They forgave him for the massacre in the priestly city of Nov. but the Givonites did not forgive him. That is why God distanced them, as it is stated: “The Givonites were not of the children of Israel” (II Samuel 21:2). That is what David feared, as it is stated: “Save me from bloodshed, God” (Psalms 51:16).