Deuteronomy 19 Footnotes

19:21 The measure-for-measure justice this directive advocates, known as lex talionis, need not be taken to mean, for example, that if a person should blind another person their eye should be blinded in turn. The principle is that a punishment must always be commensurate with a crime. It should neither exceed, nor be less than, the gravity of the offense (Lv 24:19-20). In the context of surrounding cultures where vengeance had no limits, lex talionis was a standard far more just.