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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.

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21 Do not show pity. Life for life,[a] eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot!(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 19:21 Life for life…: this phrasing of the lex talionis may seem exaggerated, but the law itself is meant to ensure equity and proportional punishment; cf. note on Ex 21:22–25.

Teaching About Retaliation. 38 [a]“You have heard that it was said,(A) ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’

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Footnotes

  1. 5:38–42 See Lv 24:20. The Old Testament commandment was meant to moderate vengeance; the punishment should not exceed the injury done. Jesus forbids even this proportionate retaliation. Of the five examples that follow, only the first deals directly with retaliation for evil; the others speak of liberality.