Exodus 21:22-27

21:22 “If men fight and hit a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, ¹  but there is no serious injury, he will surely be punished in accordance with what the woman’s husband demands of him, and he will pay what the court decides. ²  21:23 But if there is serious injury, then you will give a life for a life, 21:24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 21:25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. ³ 

21:26 “If a man strikes the eye of his male servant or his female servant so that he destroys it, ⁴  he will let the servant ⁵  go free ⁶  as compensation for the eye. 21:27 If he knocks out the tooth of his male servant or his female servant, he will let the servant ⁷  go free as compensation for the tooth.

Leviticus 24:19-20

24:19 If a man inflicts an injury on ⁸  his fellow citizen, ⁹  just as he has done it must be done to him – 24:20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth – just as he inflicts an injury on another person ¹⁰  that same injury ¹¹  must be inflicted on him.

Deuteronomy 19:19

19:19 you must do to him what he had intended to do to the accused. In this way you will purge ¹²  evil from among you.

[21:22]  ¹ tn This line has occasioned a good deal of discussion. It may indicate that the child was killed, as in a miscarriage; or it may mean that there was a premature birth. The latter view is taken here because of the way the whole section is written: (1) “her children come out” reflects a birth and not the loss of children, (2) there is no serious damage, and (3) payment is to be set for any remuneration. The word אָסוֹן (’ason) is translated “serious damage.” The word was taken in Mekilta to mean “death.” U. Cassuto says the point of the phrase is that neither the woman or the children that are born die (Exodus, 275). But see among the literature on this: M. G. Kline, “Lex Talionis and the Human Fetus,” JETS 20 (1977): 193-201; W. House, “Miscarriage or Premature Birth: Additional Thoughts on Exodus 21:22-25,” WTJ 41 (1978): 108-23; S. E. Loewenstamm, “Exodus XXI 22-25,” VT 27 (1977): 352-60.

[21:22]  ² tn The word בִּפְלִלִים (biflilim) means “with arbitrators.” The point then seems to be that the amount of remuneration for damages that was fixed by the husband had to be approved by the courts. S. R. Driver mentions an alternative to this unusual reading presented by Budde, reading בנפלים as “untimely birth” (Exodus, 219). See also E. A. Speiser, “The Stem PLL in Hebrew,” JBL 82 (1963): 301-6.

[21:25]  ³ sn The text now introduces the Lex Talionis with cases that were not likely to have applied to the situation of the pregnant woman. See K. Luke, “Eye for Eye, Tooth for Tooth,” Indian Theological Studies 16 (1979): 326-43.

[21:26]  ⁴ tn The form וְשִׁחֲתָהּ (vÿshikhatah) is the Piel perfect with the vav (ל) consecutive, rendered “and destroys it.” The verb is a strong one, meaning “to ruin, completely destroy.”

[21:26]  ⁵ tn Heb “him”; the referent (the male or female servant) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:26]  ⁶ sn Interestingly, the verb used here for “let him go” is the same verb throughout the first part of the book for “release” of the Israelites from slavery. Here, an Israelite will have to release the injured slave.

[21:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “him”; the referent (the male or female servant) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “gives a flaw in”; KJV, ASV “cause a blemish in.”

[24:19]  ⁹ tn Or “neighbor” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); TEV, NLT “another person.”

[24:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in the man [אָדָם, ’adam].”

[24:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “just as he inflicts an injury…it must be inflicted on him.” The referent (“that same injury”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:19]  ¹² tn Heb “you will burn out” (בִּעַרְתָּ, bi’arta). Like a cancer, unavenged sin would infect the whole community. It must, therefore, be excised by the purging out of its perpetrators who, presumably, remained unrepentant (cf. Deut 13:6; 17:7, 12; 21:21; 22:21-22, 24; 24:7).