There is still another set of circumstances developed in a series of discussions in the literature, all of which spring from the same Biblical account. These discussions, different from those above, do not deal with the worth of one person rather than another, but with the safety of a social group as against the life of one person. The question now is whether a city or a group may save itself by handing over one of its number to death. In the Second Book of Samuel , chapter 20, Sheva ben Bichri, who rebelled against King David , takes refuge in the city of Abel. There he is pursued by Joab and his army, which surrounds the city and threatens to destroy it. The wise woman of the city gives up Sheva to Joab , and thus the city is spared. This incident is discussed in the Tosefta(Terumot, end of chapter 7) and in the Palestinian Talmud (Terumot, end of chapter 8), where it is cited as a guide in the following situation. A group of travelers is stopped by brigands who say to the travelers:"Give us one of your number. We will kill him and let the rest of you go." May they do so? This, now, is a case of saving a large number of people by having one person die. The decision is that they must say:"No, we would rather all be killed than give up one of our number to death”(since the shedding of blood is one of the three sins for which a person must be willing to die rather than commit it, the other two being idolatry and immorality). The conclusion is, so far, that rather than commit what amounts to one murder, we would rather be killed ourselves, even though there are twenty of us and the victim would be only one.
However, the discussion in the Zosefta and in the Talmud continues as follows: This wholesale self-sacrifice applies only when the brigands are not specific and merely say"one of you," thus compelling us to choose the man to be killed. But if they are specific and they ar searching for a certain man whom they mention by name, then we do not all have to be killed for his sake, since it is not we who selected him for death. This, however, is only one opinion. The opposite opinion is that this one man, even though specifically named, may not be turned over to the brigands unless he is criminal, as Sheva was in the Biblical account, since he rebelled against King David . This distinction is
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