Exodus 21:24

Easy-to-Read Version

You must trade an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot,

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

King James Version
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Lexham English Bible
eye in place of eye, tooth in place of tooth, hand in place of hand, foot in place of foot,

New Century Version
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

New English Translation
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Amplified Bible
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

New American Standard Bible
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Geneva Bible (1587)
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hande for hand, foote for foote,

Legacy Standard Bible
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Contemporary English Version
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Complete Jewish Bible
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Darby Translation
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

English Standard Version
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

George Lamsa Translation
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Good News Translation
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Christian Standard Bible®
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Literal Translation
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
eye for eye, toth for toth, hande for hande, fote for fote,

American Standard Version
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Bible in Basic English
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Eye for eye, tothe for tothe, hande for hande, foote for foote,

JPS Old Testament (1917)
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

King James Version (1611)
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foote for foote,

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

English Revised Version
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Berean Standard Bible
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
he schal yelde lijf for lijf, iye for iye, tooth for tooth, hond for hond, foot for foot,

Young's Literal Translation
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Update Bible Version
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Webster's Bible Translation
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

World English Bible
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

New King James Version
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

New Living Translation
an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot,

New Life Bible
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

New Revised Standard
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, - hand for hand, foot for foot,

Douay-Rheims Bible
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Revised Standard Version
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Contextual Overview

²² "Two men might be fighting and hurt a pregnant woman. This might make the woman give birth to her baby before its time. If the woman was not hurt badly, the man who hurt her must pay a fine. The woman's husband will decide how much the man must pay. The judges will help the man decide how much the fine will be. ²³ But if the woman was hurt badly, then the man who hurt her must be punished. The punishment must fit the crime. You must trade one life for another life. ²⁴ You must trade an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, ²⁵ a burn for a burn, a bruise for a bruise, a cut for a cut. ²⁶ "If a man hits a slave in the eye, and the slave is blinded in that eye, then the slave will be allowed to go free. His eye is the payment for his freedom. This is the same for a man or a woman slave. ²⁷ If a master hits his slave in the mouth, and the slave loses a tooth, then the slave will be allowed to go free. The slave's tooth is payment for the slave's freedom. This is the same for a man or a woman slave. ²⁸ "If a man's bull kills a man or woman, then you should use stones and kill that bull. You should not eat the bull. The owner of the bull is not guilty. ²⁹ But if the bull had hurt people in the past, and if the owner was warned, then the owner is guilty. That is because he did not keep the bull tied or locked in its place. So if the bull is allowed to be free and kills someone, the owner is guilty. You should kill the bull with stones and also kill the owner. ³⁰ But the family of the dead man may accept money. If they accept money, the man who owned the bull should not be killed. But he must pay as much money as the judge decides. ³¹ "This same law must be followed if the bull kills someone's son or daughter.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

This is the earliest account we have of the פבץפןנבטויב, tautopatheia, Lex Talionis, law of like for like. Exodus 21:26, Exodus 21:27, Leviticus 24:19, Leviticus 24:20, Deuteronomy 19:21, Judges 1:6, Judges 1:7, 1 Samuel 15:33, Matthew 5:38-40, Matthew 7:2, Luke 6:38, Revelation 16:6

Cross-References

Genesis 14:13
One of the men who had escaped went to Abram the Hebrew and told him what happened. Abram was camped near the trees of Mamre the Amorite. Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner had made an agreement to help each other, and they had also signed an agreement to help Abram.

Romans 12:18
Do the best you can to live in peace with everyone.

Hebrews 6:16
People always use the name of someone greater than themselves to make a promise with an oath. The oath proves that what they say is true, and there is no more arguing about it.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. This is "lex talionis", the law of retaliation, and from whence the Heathens had theirs; but whether this is to be taken strictly and literally, or only for pecuniary mulcts, is a question; Josephus d understands it in the former sense, the Jewish writers generally in the latter; and so the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it;

"the price of an eye for an eye, c.''

Jarchi on the place observes, that,

"he that puts out his neighbour's eye must pay him the price of his eye, according to the price of a servant sold in the market, and so of all the rest for not taking away of members strictly is meant, as our doctors here interpret it;''

in a place he refers to, and to which Aben Ezra agrees; and of the difference and dispute between the Jews concerning this matter,

:- and indeed, though these laws of retaliation should, according to the letter of them, be attended to as far as they can; yet, in some cases, it seems necessary that they should not be strictly attended to, but some recompence made in another way, and nothing seems more agreeable than a pecuniary one: thus, for instance, this law cannot be literally executed, when one that has never an eye puts out the eye of another, as it is possible that a blind man may; or one that has no teeth may strike out the tooth of another; in such cases eye cannot be given for eye, nor tooth for tooth; and, as Saadiah Gaon e observes, if a man should smite the eye of his neighbour, and the third part of the sight of his eye should depart, how will he order it to strike such a stroke as that, without adding or lessening? and if a man that has but one eye, or one hand, or one foot, should damage another man in those parts, and must lose his other eye, or hand, or foot, he would be in a worse case and condition than the man he injured; since he would still have one eye, or hand, or foot; wherefore a like law of Charondas among the Thurians is complained of, since it might be the case, that a man with one eye might have that struck out, and so be utterly deprived of sight; whereas the man that struck it out, though he loses one for it, yet has another, and so not deprived of sight utterly, and therefore thought not to be sufficiently punished; and that it was most correct that he should have both his eyes put out for it: and hence Diodorus Siculus f reports of a one-eyed man who lost his eye, that he complained of this law to the people, and advised to have it altered: this "lex talionis" was among the Roman laws of the "twelve tables" g.

d Antiqu. l. 4. c. 33. 35. e Apud Aben Ezram in loc. f Bibliothec. l. 12. par. 2. p. 82, 83. g A. Gell. Noct. Attic. l. 20. c. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The rule would seem to refer to a case in which the wife of a man interfered in a quarrel. This law, “the jus talionis,” is elsewhere repeated in substance, compare the marginal references. and Genesis 9:6. It has its root in a simple conception of justice, and is found in the laws of many ancient nations. It serves in this place as a maxim for the magistrate in awarding the amount of compensation to be paid for the infliction of personal injury. The sum was to be as nearly as possible the worth in money of the power lost by the injured person. Our Lord quotes Exodus 21:24 as representing the form of the law, in order to illustrate the distinction between the letter and the spirit Matthew 5:38. The tendency of the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees was to confound the obligations of the conscience with the external requirements of the law. The law, in its place, was still to be “holy and just and good,” Romans 7:12, but its direct purpose was to protect the community, not to guide the heart of the believer, who was not to exact eye for eye, tooth for tooth, but to love his enemies, and to forgive all injuries.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 21:24. Eye for eye — This is the earliest account we have of the lex talionis, or law of like for like, which afterwards prevailed among the Greeks and Romans. Among the latter, it constituted a part of the twelve tables, so famous in antiquity; but the punishment was afterwards changed to a pecuniary fine, to be levied at the discretion of the praetor. It prevails less or more in most civilized countries, and is fully acted upon in the canon law, in reference to all calumniators: Calumniator, si in accusatione defecerit, talionem recipiat. "If the calumniator fall in the proof of his accusation, let him suffer the same punishment which he wished to have inflicted upon the man whom he falsely accused." Nothing, however, of this kind was left to private revenge; the magistrate awarded the punishment when the fact was proved, otherwise the lex talionis would have utterly destroyed the peace of society, and have sown the seeds of hatred, revenge, and all uncharitableness.