Metaphor
It is hard, very hard for most people to grasp that a sentence such as: "You shall not kill" is a metaphor.

Let me take a step backwards, and look at the issue of translation. The sentence is more properly translated as "Do not commit murder". No wonder I've agree with the sentiment that "translation is a lie".

Now, what killing is murder, and what killing is not murder? If I step on a bug by mistake, is that murder? If I ingest a paramecium in a glass of water, is that murder? If I pull up and boil a potato, is that murder?

We have the responsibility for setting the boundaries on when killing is murder. Society usually encodes this as a set of laws, but even then there are ambiguities.

Society is not necessarily right in where boundaries are set. There are unjust laws.

So this simple statement becomes a metaphor for the moral taking of a life, where each of us must understand in our hearts what is murder, and what is not, for we all kill, even when we don't intend to. Jainism aside as a lofty ideal, it is impossible to live without killing.

Thus there are conditions under which taking a life is not murder, and I will be held accountable to abiding by them as I kill in the living of my life. As there are unjust laws, the laws of a society are just a guide, and may need to be disregarding to live a just and good life, though in the doing so, I must always remember that I will be held accountable for any breach of law, no matter how unjust.