Exodus 21:24

THE MESSAGE

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,

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,

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"When there's a fight and in the fight a pregnant woman is hit so that she miscarries but is not otherwise hurt, the one responsible has to pay whatever the husband demands in compensation. But if there is further damage, then you must give life for life—eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. ²⁶"If a slave owner hits the eye of a slave or handmaid and ruins it, the owner must let the slave go free because of the eye. If the owner knocks out the tooth of the male or female slave, the slave must be released and go free because of the tooth. ²⁸"If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox must be stoned. The meat cannot be eaten but the owner of the ox is in the clear. But if the ox has a history of goring and the owner knew it and did nothing to guard against it, then if the ox kills a man or a woman, the ox is to be stoned and the owner given the death penalty. If a ransom is agreed upon instead of death, he must pay it in full as a redemption for his life. If a son or daughter is gored, the same judgment holds. If it is a slave or a handmaid the ox gores, thirty shekels of silver is to be paid to the owner and the ox stoned. ³³"If someone uncovers a cistern or digs a pit and leaves it open and an ox or donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit must pay whatever the animal is worth to its owner but can keep the dead animal. ³⁵"If someone's ox injures a neighbor's ox and the ox dies, they must sell the live ox and split the price; they must also split the dead animal. But if the ox had a history of goring and the owner knew it and did nothing to guard against it, the owner must pay an ox for an ox but can keep the dead animal."

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
A fugitive came and reported to Abram the Hebrew. Abram was living at the Oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and Aner. They were allies of Abram. When Abram heard that his nephew had been taken prisoner, he lined up his servants, all of them born in his household—there were 318 of them—and chased after the captors all the way to Dan. Abram and his men split into small groups and attacked by night. They chased them as far as Hobah, just north of Damascus. They recovered all the plunder along with nephew Lot and his possessions, including the women and the people.

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.