Exodus 21:25
in Exodus 21burn for burn, wound for wound, and stripe for stripe.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
KJV
Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
⋯
This verse in Exodus 21
Commentary
3 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth
on Exodus 21:24-25
The list sits inside a paragraph about judges determining a payment, so it fixes a ceiling on what may be exacted rather than opening a licence to exact it. John Wesley wrote that the execution of this law was never put into the hands of private persons, and that the tradition of the elders had put a corrupt gloss upon it, which is the gloss Jesus answers at Matthew 5:38 and 5:39. The same rule returns at Leviticus 24:20 and Deuteronomy 19:21. Later rabbinic law read the whole list as monetary compensation, argued at length in the Babylonian Talmud at Bava Kamma 83b and 84a, a body of discussion compiled by about the sixth century.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
eye for eye--The law which authorized retaliation (a principle acted upon by all primitive people) was a civil one. It was given to regulate the procedure of the public magistrate in determining the amount of compensation in every case of injury, but did not encourage feelings of private revenge.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כְּוִיָּה֙ | keviyah | burning | H3555 → | |
| תַּ֣חַת | tachat | in place of | H8478 → | 505 times |
| כְּוִיָּ֔ה | keviyah | burning | H3555 → | |
| פֶּ֖צַע | petza' | bruise | H6482 → | |
| תַּ֣חַת | tachat | in place of | H8478 → | 505 times |
| פָּ֑צַע | patza' | bruise | H6482 → | |
| חַבּוּרָ֕ה | chaburah | wound | H2250 → | |
| תַּ֖חַת | tachat | in place of | H8478 → | 505 times |
| חַבּוּרָֽה׃ ס | chaburah | wound | H2250 → |
כְּוִיָּה֙burning
keviyahH3555 →
תַּ֣חַתin place of
tachatH8478 →505 times
כְּוִיָּ֔הburning
keviyahH3555 →
פֶּ֖צַעbruise
petza'H6482 →
תַּ֣חַתin place of
tachatH8478 →505 times
פָּ֑צַעbruise
patza'H6482 →
חַבּוּרָ֕הwound
chaburahH2250 →
תַּ֖חַתin place of
tachatH8478 →505 times
חַבּוּרָֽה׃ סwound
chaburahH2250 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Exodus
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.