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Exodus 21:22-25
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Exodus 21:22-25
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
22 [a]When men have a fight and hurt a pregnant woman, so that she suffers a miscarriage, but no further injury, the guilty one shall be fined as much as the woman’s husband demands of him, and he shall pay in the presence of the judges. 23 (A)But if injury ensues, you shall give life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 21:22–25 This law of talion is applied here in the specific case of a pregnant woman who, as an innocent bystander, is injured by two fighting men. The law of talion is not held up as a general principle to be applied throughout the book of the covenant. (But see note on Lv 24:19–20.) Here this principle of rigorous accountability aimed to prevent injury to a woman about to give birth by apparently requiring the assailant to have his own wife injured as she was about to bring new life into his family. However, it is debatable whether talion was ever understood or applied literally in Israel. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus challenges his audience to find a deeper form of justice than the supposed equilibrium offered by talion (Mt 5:38–40).
Exodus 21:22-25
New International Version
Exodus 21:22-25
New International Version
22 “If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely[a] but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands(A) and the court allows. 23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life,(B) 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth,(C) hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
Footnotes
- Exodus 21:22 Or she has a miscarriage
New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)
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