“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine.
Two men fight, a pregnant woman is hit, and her child comes out early. The law calls for a fine, but it names both her husband and the judges — so who really sets the penalty?
Where the verse stands
This chapter is a block of case law. These rules were not abstract ideas. They set how neighbours were to deal with each other day by day.
An Outline of Sound WordsThis chapter records various "judgments" or "fixed ordinances." The people were commanded to keep them. They were to shape their conduct in every dealing with each other, as fits those who are in covenant relationship with God. The penalties for any breach of them plainly match the character and principle of that relationship, which was law.
The case itself
The penalty matches the outcome. The ESV says her children "come out"; the writer quoted here takes that as a miscarriage. He reads the further harm in the next verse as harm to the woman, and he shows that even the harsher penalties aimed at fair repayment.
L. M. GrantIf men are fighting and a woman suffers a miscarriage, the person responsible must pay some compensation. The woman's husband demands it, or a judge decides it. But if the woman herself was harmed, the guilty party had to answer for that too. The judgment then matched the injury — "eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe" (vv. 24-25). Of course, tearing out a man's eye because he had blinded another's eye would not help the injured person. But that person is entitled to fair repayment.
A courtroom rule, not a private licence
This verse names the judges, and that is the key to the famous "eye for eye" rule. It speaks to the courts, not to the injured man's own hand.
Arend RemmersThe principle of "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth" belongs to the legal directions that governed the daily life of the people. It is not a rule for one person's conscience. It is a legal direction for the authorities and judges of Israel. Exodus 21:22 and Deuteronomy 19:18 make this clear, because both name the judges. The direction rested on the principle of complete fairness in repaying the deed. It was meant to warn the people and hold them back (Deut. 19:20).
God's care for the body
These rules can look like dry legal detail. One writer draws out what they say about God Himself.
Edward DennettAll these laws reveal the tenderness of God in protecting the bodies of His people, and above all the bodies of those in a lower position.
Justice that caps revenge
The matching penalty works as a limit. Without it, anger would ask back more than it lost.
VariousUnder the old order we find that the law laid down the principle, in righteousness, "An eye for an eye" (Ex. 21:24), and by that it restrained the anger of man. Otherwise he would have demanded two eyes for one, out of revenge.
What Christ does with the rule
Jesus quoted this very standard when He taught His disciples. What He asked of them went past anything they had heard.
William KellyHere the Lord goes beyond all Jewish, and indeed all human, thought. He tells His disciples to bear every kind of wrong done to them with patient grace. They must not resist it. He quotes the law's principle of retaliation, as it is called, to set it aside. That principle was wide open to abuse. Even when judges applied it with the strictest justice, it acted as a strong check on the desire for revenge. Yet it was still far from the mind of heaven which Christ was showing on earth.
The same writer turns this contrast into a rule for how we treat others.
Edward DennettLaw demands an exact equivalent — no more, and no less. But grace can cancel every claim. God dealt with us in grace and cancelled our whole debt, so we must act on the same principle towards one another. Never forget, though, that grace itself rests deep in righteousness, and so it reigns through righteousness (Rom. 5:21), on a foundation that never changes.
Summary
- Judgments. This verse is case law. It is a fixed rule for how God's covenant people treat each other, and its penalties fit that relationship.
- Judges. The husband may name a claim, but the court settles it. This verse shows that "eye for eye" was an order to judges, not permission for private payback.
- Measured. The matching penalty restrains anger, which would otherwise demand two eyes for one. It was fair repayment and a warning to all.
- Tender. Behind the legal detail is God's care for the bodies of His people, above all the weaker ones.
- Beyond. Christ quoted this standard and set it aside for His own. Law asks the exact equivalent. Grace can cancel the claim, because ours was cancelled first.