When I was young it was made clear to me that the directive was specifically against 'criminal killing' of anykind, not the justified killings mentioned elsewhere in the bible. :o)

I always found it interesting the many places in the Bible that justify war, methods for capital punishment, and the slaughter of animals.

>>By the way, when I grew up the King James version of the Bible had a commandment that said simply "Thou shalt not kill.". Today I understand the same version now says "Thou shalt not murder.". I wonder how/why that came about?????
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>As the others said, it was a bad translation. The key point is that killing isn't necessarily murder. The commandment doesn't mean that you shouldn't kill to save your own life, for example.
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>Tamar