Gen 9, 4-6 I will demand an accounting

(Gen 9, 4-6) I will demand an accounting

[4] Only flesh with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat. [5] For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from man in regard to his fellow man I will demand an accounting for human life. [6] If anyone sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; For in the image of God has man been made.

(CCC 2260) The covenant between God and mankind is interwoven with reminders of God's gift of human life and man's murderous violence: For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning.... Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image (Gen 9:5-6). The Old Testament always considered blood a sacred sign of life (Cf. Lev 17:14). This teaching remains necessary for all time.