Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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Care is here taken that satisfaction be made for hurt done to a person, though death do not ensue, Ex 21:18,19. He that did the hurt must be accountable for damages, and pay, not only for the cure, but for the loss of time, to which the Jews add that he must likewise give some recompence both for the pain and for the blemish, if there were any.
19 if he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that
smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.
20 And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die
under his hand; he shall be surely punished.
21 Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be
punished: for he is his money.
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.
1. The execution of this law is not hereby put into the hands of private persons, as if every man might avenge himself, which would introduce universal confusion, and make men like the fishes of the sea. The tradition of the elders seems to have put this corrupt gloss upon it, in opposition to which our Saviour commands us to forgive injuries, and not to meditate revenge, Mt 5:39.
2. God often executes it in the course of his providence, making the punishment, in many cases, to answer to the sin, as Jdg 1:7,Isa 33:1,Hab 2:13,Mt 26:52.
3. Magistrates ought to have an eye to this rule in punishing offenders, and doing right to those that are injured. Consideration must be had of the nature, quality, and degree of the wrong done, that reparation may be made to the party injured, and others deterred from doing the like; either an eye shall go for an eye, or the forfeited eye shall be redeemed by a sum of money.