for already at the present time there are more than two million who have made Jehovah and his Messianic kingdom their refuge. These are proclaiming the good news of this kingdom in practically all parts of the earth, and hundreds of thousands are putting their trust in this kingdom and joining in its proclamation each year. Jehovah is indeed becoming a refuge for millions!

Questions From Readers

● How is Genesis 9:5 to be understood, where God said that he would ‘ask back the blood’ from an animal that killed a human?

Basically this means that if an animal killed a man, it must be slain. For taking a human life, it must lose its own life.

After the Flood, Jehovah God first allowed humans to kill animals for food, though blood was not to be eaten. (Gen. 9:3, 4) Then God pointed out the superiority of human life over animal life, man having been created in God’s image. Jehovah said:

“Your blood of your souls shall I ask back. From the hand of every living creature shall I ask it back; and from the hand of man, from the hand of each one who is his brother, shall I ask back the soul of man. Anyone shedding man’s blood, by man will his own blood be shed, for in God’s image he made man.”​—Gen. 9:5, 6.

So, even though animals could be killed for food, humans were not to be killed. If a man murdered another human, taking a life that he was not authorized to take and thus incurring bloodguilt, he was to forfeit his own life. And this pattern was to be applied even with man-killing animals. True, an animal would not know that in killing a human it had violated a divine law. But this requirement certainly would impress on humans how precious is a man’s life, for not even a dumb animal could take a human life with impunity.

In his Law to Israel Jehovah later provided a regulation pertaining to man-killing animals. According to Exodus 21:28-32, a bull that gored a man to death was to be killed by stoning. It is widely understood that this law was not limited to bulls; the case of a goring bull could well be appreciated in an agricultural society, and it illustrated what should be done with any animal that killed a human. If it took a human life, the killer creature must surrender its own life.

Such a consequence has proved to be true in many societies of people descending from Noah. For example, The International Wildlife Encyclopedia observed: “Once a tiger has turned man-eater or cattle-killer, for whatever reason, every man’s hand is against it. Whole villages will turn out and not rest until it is killed, even in areas where the tiger is protected by law.”

Some persons may view this simply as a self-protective measure. But the statement in Genesis 9:5, 6 should forcefully impress on us the preciousness of human life. It cannot be taken with impunity. Thus we should strive to be free of bloodguilt, and should use the precious human life we have to the honor of the provider of life, Jehovah God.​—Acts 20:26, 27; Ps. 36:7, 9.

● Does Matthew 27:52, 53 mean that at the time of Jesus’ death some persons in the grave were resurrected?

Many Bible commentators feel that this is what these verses mean. Yet scholars admit that the sense and proper translation of these verses is unusually difficult. Actually, there are reasons to believe that these verses mean that when Jesus died the accompanying earthquake broke open tombs near Jerusalem and thus exposed corpses to passersby.

Matthew 27:52, 53 says that “the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.”​—Common Bible.

But if a resurrection occurred when Jesus died, as this and other translations suggest, would the resurrected ones have waited until