15 “Anyone who attacks[a] their father or mother is to be put to death.

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Footnotes

  1. Exodus 21:15 Or kills

15 And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.

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18 “If people quarrel and one person hits another with a stone or with their fist[a] and the victim does not die but is confined to bed,

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Footnotes

  1. Exodus 21:18 Or with a tool

18 And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:

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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.

26 “An owner who hits a male or female slave in the eye and destroys it must let the slave go free to compensate for the eye. 27 And an owner who knocks out the tooth of a male or female slave must let the slave go free to compensate for the tooth.

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Footnotes

  1. Exodus 21:22 Or she has a miscarriage

22 If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

23 And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,

24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

26 And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.

27 And if he smite out his manservant's tooth, or his maidservant's tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.

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Law Courts

If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge(A)—whether bloodshed, lawsuits or assaults(B)—take them to the place the Lord your God will choose.(C) Go to the Levitical(D) priests and to the judge(E) who is in office at that time. Inquire of them and they will give you the verdict.(F) 10 You must act according to the decisions they give you at the place the Lord will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you to do. 11 Act according to whatever they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the left.(G) 12 Anyone who shows contempt(H) for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering(I) there to the Lord your God is to be put to death.(J) You must purge the evil from Israel.(K)

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If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose;

And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment:

10 And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee:

11 According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.

12 And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.

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Eye for Eye

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[a](A)

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Footnotes

  1. Matthew 5:38 Exodus 21:24; Lev. 24:20; Deut. 19:21

38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:

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39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.(A)

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39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

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