You must show no pity for the guilty! Your rule should be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Parallel translations
- WEB Your eyes shall not pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
- KJV And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
- BSB You must show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.
- NKJV Your eye shall not pity: life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
- NASB So you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Punishment must fit the crime: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. This principle limits vengeance to proportionate justice.
Overview
The lex talionis set a measured standard, ensuring penalties matched offenses and curbing excessive retaliation. Administered by judges, it was a principle of just proportion, not personal revenge. Jesus later corrects its misuse as a license for private vengeance, calling His followers to mercy and non-retaliation (Matt. 5:38-39).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Matt 5:38–39“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’
- Exod 21:23–25But if any harm follows, then you must take life for life,
- Deut 19:13Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.
- Lev 24:17–21“‘He who strikes any man mortally shall surely be put to death.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 19:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.