An Eye For An Eye

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.   Deuteronomy 19:21

Some people are surprised that this statement is in the Bible. But God never intended that if you knock my tooth out, you should stand against a wall while I line up my punch to knock yours out! “Eye for eye” is not an invitation to retaliatory violence. God’s command simply established the principle of fair compensation.

Suppose a slave owner struck his slave and blinded him. The law demanded that the slave should be compensated in some way, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” (Exodus 21:24). God was not telling the blinded slave to put out his owner’s eye! But there should be some compensation, and in this case, God says the slave should be given his freedom (see 21:26).

“An eye for an eye” also teaches us that compensation should be in proportion to the damage done. It is an eye for an eye—not two eyes, an arm, and a leg! God’s law places restraints on the injured person who says, “You have made me suffer, so I will make you suffer ten times over!”

God’s law gives guidance to judges by telling them that they are not to make huge and disproportionate awards, but are to keep a due sense of proportion: “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.” Properly understood, this is a principle that we desperately need today, in a society where a simple injury is sometimes seen as an opportunity to make a fortune.

When a culture is given over to selfishness and greed, the courts become about winning, not about what is true and right. It’s about who can present the most compelling story. When truth is lost, we find ourselves in a world of “spin,” where it is hard to know what is true and what is right, and the value of life itself is lost. We must work to protect truth and offer just compensation to those to whom it is due.

For further reading, see Matthew 5