(or "blood redeemer"; Heb. go'eI ha-dam). Kinsman required by ancient law to avenge bloodshed. The institution emerged in societies organized on the basis of tribes and clans. It provided that if a member of a clan or family was slain, direct kinsmen or fellow members of the clan were obliged to kill the slayer or, failing that, any member of the slayer's clan. According to the Bible, human blood shed by man requires expiation (Gen. 9:6). If the murder goes unavenged, restitution devolves upon the supreme avenger, God (Gen. 9:5; Deut. 32:43; II Kings 9:7). However, the prime burden and duty of revenge falls on the blood avenger. The Bible includes several references to this practice, the earliest of which is Lamech's song (Gen. 4:23-24). Gideon slew Zebah and Zalmunna for killing his brothers (Judg. 8:18-21); Joab slew Abner for murdering his brother Asahel (II Sam. 3:27); and Absalom slew Amnon for having raped Tamar, Absalom's sister (II Sam. 13:28ff.). To this day, among Bedouin Arabs, the rape and dishonor of a female must be avenged by a member of the raped woman's family, who takes it upon himself to kill the offender.
Aside from providing Asylum in cities of refuge for the involuntary manslayer, biblical legislation stipulates that justice be meted out to those guilty of premeditated murder by an established court and not by a blood avenger. The Talmud (in tractate Makkot) endeavors to assimilate biblical ordinances regarding the blood avenger with the normal judicial procedure against one guilty of murder.
