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But if any harm follows, then you must take life for life,
Verse Takeaways
1
A Principle of Public Justice
Commentators explain that "life for life" introduces the legal principle of 'lex talionis' (the law of retaliation). This was not a license for personal revenge but a standard for magistrates to ensure punishments were proportional to the crime. Scholars note this principle was common in ancient legal codes and was intended to limit vengeance and establish public justice.
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Exodus
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5
18th Century
Presbyterian
The rule would seem to refer to a case in which a man's wife interfered in a quarrel. This law, “the jus talionis,” is repeated elsewhere in substa…
19th Century
Anglican
Life for life, eye for eye. —It is a reasonable conjecture that the law of retaliation was much older than Moses, and acc…
17th Century
Reformed Baptist
And if any mischief follow According as that is, so shall it be done to the smiter: if death follows,
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The cases mentioned here give rules of justice that were applicable then and are still in use for deciding similar matters. These laws teach us tha…
