Leviticus 24:17-23

``An Eye for an Eye"

17 '¹If a man takes the life of any human being, he shall surely be put to death.

18 '²The one who takes the life of an animal shall make it good, life for life.

19 'If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him:

20 ³fracture for fracture, ⁴eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him.

21 'Thus the one who kills an animal shall make it good, but ⁵the one who kills a man shall be put to death.

22 'There shall be ⁶one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am the LORD your God.' "

23 Then Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and they brought the one who had cursed outside * * the camp and stoned him with stones. Thus the sons of Israel did, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

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Leviticus 24:17-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 24

This chapter treats of the oil for the lamps, and the ordering of them, Le 24:1-4; of the making of the shewbread cakes, and the setting of them on the table, Le 24:5-9; and an Israelite having blasphemed the name of the Lord, and inquiry being made what should be done to him, he, and so any other person guilty of the same, is ordered to be stoned to death, Le 24:10-16; on occasion of which several laws are repeated concerning killing a man or a beast, or doing injury to any man, Le 24:17-23.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 6

1. Genesis 9:6; Exodus 21:12; Numbers 35:30, 31; Deuteronomy 27:24
2. Leviticus 24:21
3. Exodus 21:23; Deuteronomy 19:21
4. Matthew 5:38
5. Leviticus 24:17
6. Exodus 12:49; Numbers 9:14; Numbers 15:15, 16, 29

Footnotes 8

[a]. Lit "smites"
[b]. Lit "smites"
[c]. Lit "gives a blemish"
[d]. Lit "given a blemish"
[e]. Lit "given"
[f]. Lit "smites"
[g]. Lit "smites"
[h]. Lit "judgment"