Exodus 21:23
New International Version
But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life,

New Living Translation
But if there is further injury, the punishment must match the injury: a life for a life,

English Standard Version
But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life,

Berean Standard Bible
But if a serious injury results, then you must require a life for a life—

King James Bible
And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,

New King James Version
But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life,

New American Standard Bible
But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life,

NASB 1995
“But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life,

NASB 1977
“But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life,

Legacy Standard Bible
But if there is any further injury, then you shall pay life for life,

Amplified Bible
But if there is any further injury, then you shall require [as a penalty] life for life,

Christian Standard Bible
If there is an injury, then you must give life for life,

Holman Christian Standard Bible
If there is an injury, then you must give life for life,

American Standard Version
But if any harm follow, then thou shalt give life for life,

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And if there is misfortune, he will give a life in exchange for a life,

Brenton Septuagint Translation
But if it be perfectly formed, he shall give life for life,

Contemporary English Version
But if she is seriously injured, the payment will be life for life,

Douay-Rheims Bible
But if her death ensue thereupon, he shall render life for life.

English Revised Version
But if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,

GOD'S WORD® Translation
If anyone is injured, the offender must pay a life for a life,

Good News Translation
But if the woman herself is injured, the punishment shall be life for life,

International Standard Version
If there is harm, then you are to require life for life,

JPS Tanakh 1917
But if any harm follow, then thou shalt give life for life,

Literal Standard Version
and if there is harm [to them], then you have given life for life,

Majority Standard Bible
But if a serious injury results, then you must require a life for a life—

New American Bible
But if injury ensues, you shall give life for life,

NET Bible
But if there is serious injury, then you will give a life for a life,

New Revised Standard Version
If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life,

New Heart English Bible
But if there is injury, then you must take life for life,

Webster's Bible Translation
And if any mischief shall follow, then thou shalt give life for life,

World English Bible
But if any harm follows, then you must take life for life,

Young's Literal Translation
and if there is mischief, then thou hast given life for life,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Personal Injury Laws
22If men who are fighting strike a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, but there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband demands and as the court allows. 23But if a serious injury results, then you must require a life for a life— 24eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,…

Cross References
Leviticus 24:19
If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him:

Leviticus 24:20
fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Just as he injured the other person, the same must be inflicted on him.

Deuteronomy 19:21
You must show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.


Treasury of Scripture

And if any mischief follow, then you shall give life for life,

life for life

Numbers 35:31
Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death.

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Exodus 21
1. Laws for men servants
5. For the servant whose ear is bored
7. For women servants
12. For manslaughter
16. For kidnappers
17. For cursers of parents
18. For smiters
22. For a hurt by chance
28. For an ox that gores
33. For him who is an occasion of harm














Verse 23. - Then thou shalt give life for life. "Life for life" seems an excessive penalty, where the injury was in a great measure accidental, and when there was certainly no design to take life. Probably the law was not now enacted for the first time, but was an old tribal institution, like the law of the "avenger of blood." There are many things in the Mosaic institutions which Moses tolerated, like "bills of divorce" - on account of "the hardness of their hearts." Verses 23, 24. - Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, etc. Aristotle says in the Nicomachean Ethics, that this was the rule of justice which Rhadamanthus was supposed to act on in the judgment after death (book 5, see. 3), and that it had the approval of the Pythagoreans. Solon admitted it to a certain extent into the laws of Athens, and at Rome it found its way. into the Twelve Tables. There is a prima facie appearance of exact equality in it, which would captivate rude minds and cause the principle to be widely adopted in a rude state of society. But in practice objections would soon be felt to it. There is no exact measure of the hardness of a blow, or the severity of a wound; and "wound for wound, stripe for stripe," would open a door for very unequal inflictions "Eye for eye" would be flagrantly unjust in the case of a one-eyed man. Moreover, it is against public policy to augment unnecessarily the number of mutilated and maimed citizens, whose power to serve the state is lessened by their mutilation. Consequently in every society retaliation has at an early date given way to pecuniary compensation; and this was the case even among the Hebrews, as Kalisch has shown satisfactorily. If the literal sense was insisted on in our Lord' s day (Matthew 5:38), it was only by the Sadducees, who declined to give the law a spiritual interpretation.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
But if
וְאִם־ (wə·’im-)
Conjunctive waw | Conjunction
Strong's 518: Lo!, whether?, if, although, Oh that!, when, not

a serious injury
אָס֖וֹן (’ā·sō·wn)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 611: Mischief, evil, harm

results,
יִהְיֶ֑ה (yih·yeh)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

then you must require
וְנָתַתָּ֥ה (wə·nā·ṯat·tāh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - second person masculine singular
Strong's 5414: To give, put, set

a life
נֶ֖פֶשׁ (ne·p̄eš)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 5315: A soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion

for
תַּ֥חַת (ta·ḥaṯ)
Preposition
Strong's 8478: The bottom, below, in lieu of

a life—
נָֽפֶשׁ׃ (nā·p̄eš)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 5315: A soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion


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OT Law: Exodus 21:23 But if any harm follows then you (Exo. Ex)
Exodus 21:22
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