Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
All Commentaries on Exodus 21:24 Go To Exodus 21
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Eye. "This law tended to restrain, not to encourage, fury and revenge. "(St. Augustine, contra Faust. xix. 25.) Some explain it, as if a sum of money could only be required, equivalent to the ransom of an eye, in case a person should be under a necessity of losing or of redeeming it. (Muis; Jonathan)
Retaliation was not left to the injured party's discretion. The judge was to decide. Christ enjoins what is more perfect, ordering us to turn the left cheek, when we have received a blow on the right. The canon law inflicts the punishment of retaliation upon the calumniator. (Calmet)
