“Eye for eye, tooth for tooth”
If a serious injury results, then you must require a life for a life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. (Exodus 21:23–24 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A brutal endorsement of tit-for-tat vengeance.
The cultural key
Read as a call for mutilation, this law is badly misunderstood. In its ancient context the 'eye for eye' formula is a limit, not a license: it forbids a victim (or clan) from taking a life for an eye or a family for an insult, capping punishment at strict proportion to the harm. Jewish legal tradition understood it from early on as a schedule of monetary compensation, not literal maiming. Jesus' 'turn the other cheek' addresses personal retaliation between individuals, not the civil court this law governs.
Recovered meaning
The point is restraint, not cruelty: the punishment must fit, and never exceed, the crime, ending cycles of escalating revenge. What sounds savage is actually one of the ancient world's great brakes on vengeance.