What Does Exodus 21:24 Mean?
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,THE KEY
Each “for” means “under” and “in place of,” binding the answer to the measure of its matching injury.
THE MEANING
This verse sets a boundary around the answer to harm: each consequence corresponds to the injury named. The repeated pairings keep the measure from growing beyond its match.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An injury gives the injured person unlimited permission to answer with greater harm.
THE ROOT
תַּחַת
taḥat
GROWS FROM
ת־ח־ת
t-ḥ-t
Beneath or below; also used to mean in place of or in exchange for.
The Hebrew תַּחַת (taḥat, “under; in place of”) repeats where English says “for.” Each consequence takes the place of its counterpart, tying the response to the injury’s measure rather than letting it grow beyond it.
ALSO GROWS
taḥat: Under, beneath; in place of
תַּחַת
The verse repeats this word in every pair, giving “for” the sense of one thing standing in the place of its match.
taḥton: Lower; lower part
תַּחְתּוֹן
This form keeps the root’s sense of what lies beneath, echoing the spatial image behind the repeated pairing.
taḥtit: Bottom; underside
תַּחְתִּית
This word also names what lies beneath, while the verse extends that relation to an equivalent in place of an injury.
THE PATTERN
A response is measured against the harm it answers, keeping the measure from expanding without limit.
Break for break, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has set a blemish in a man, so shall it be set upon him.And your eye shall not spare; living soul for living soul, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you.THE THREAD
Break for break, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has set a blemish in a man, so shall it be set upon him.Leviticus repeats the same “under, in place of” pairing and adds “breach for breach.” Its fuller wording makes the correspondence plain: the consequence is measured to match the injury.
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