“Ye have heard that it was said to them of old, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be liable to the judgment.  But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable to the judgment; whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be liable to the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be liable to the hell of fire.” (v. 21-26)

But the more remote sense of this commandment, Thou shalt not kill, which is called the celestial spiritual sense, is that one shall not take away from man the faith and love of God, and thus his spiritual life.  This is murder itself, because from this life man is a man, the life of the body serving this life as the instrumental cause serves its principal cause.  Moreover, from this spiritual murder moral murder is derived; consequently he who is in the one is also in the other; for he who wills to take away a man’s spiritual life is in hatred against him if he cannot take it away, for he hates the faith and love in him, and thus the man himself.  These three, namely, spiritual murder, which pertains to faith and love, moral murder, which pertains to reputation and honor, and natural murder, which pertains to the body, follow in a series one from the other, like cause and effect. (A.E., n. 1012.)

As all who are in hell are in hatred against the Lord, and thus in hatred against heaven, for they are against goods and truths, so hell is the essential murderer or the source of essential murder.  It is the source of essential murder because man is man from the Lord through the reception of good and truth; consequently destruction of good and truth is destruction of the human itself, thus the killing of man.

That those who are in hell are such has not yet been known in the world, because in those who belong to hell and therefore after death come into hell no hatred against good and truth, or against heaven, or still less against the Lord, is evident.  For everyone while he lives in the world is in externals; and these externals are taught and trained from infancy to counterfeit such things as are honest and decorous, right and equitable, and good and true.  Nevertheless, hatred lies concealed in their spirit, and this in equal degree with the evil of their life.  And as hatred is in the spirit it breaks forth when the externals are laid aside, as is the case after death.

This infernal hatred against all who are in good is deadly hatred because it is hatred against the Lord.  This can be seen particularly in their delight in doing evil, which is such as to exceed in degree every other delight, for it is a fire that burns with a lust for destroying souls.  Moreover, it has been ascertained that this delight is not from hatred against those whom they attempt to destroy, but from hatred against the Lord Himself.  And since man is a man from the Lord, and the human which is from the Lord is good and truth, and since those who are in hell are, from hatred against the Lord, eager to kill the human, which is good and truth, it follows that hell is the source of murder itself. (A.E., n. 1013.)