Deuteronomy 19:21
◄  Deuteronomy 19:21  ►
New International Version (©2011)
Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

New Living Translation (©2007)
You must show no pity for the guilty! Your rule should be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

English Standard Version (©2001)
Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"Thus you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
You must not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot."

International Standard Version (©2012)
Your eyes must not show pity—life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot."

NET Bible (©2006)
You must not show pity; the principle will be a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Have no pity on him: [Take] a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And your eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

American King James Version
And your eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

American Standard Version
And thine eyes shall not pity; life'shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Douay-Rheims Bible
21Thou shalt not pity him, but shalt require life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Darby Bible Translation
And thine eye shall not spare: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

English Revised Version
And thine eye shall not pity; life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Webster's Bible Translation
And thy eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

World English Bible
Your eyes shall not pity; life [shall go] for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Young's Literal Translation
and thine eye doth not pity -- life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:15-21 Sentence should never be passed upon the testimony of one witness alone. A false witness should suffer the same punishment which he sought to have inflicted upon the person he accused. Nor could any law be more just. Let all Christians not only be cautious in bearing witness in public, but be careful not to join in private slanders; and let all whose consciences accuse them of crime, without delay flee for refuge to the hope set before them in Jesus Christ.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - The lex talionis was in this case to be observed (cf. Exodus 21:23; Leviticus 24:20). Practically, however, a pecuniary compensation might be accepted for the offence (cf. Josephus, 'Antiq.,' 4:8, 35).

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And thine eye shall not pity,.... The false witness when convicted; this is directed to the judges, who should not spare such an one through favour or affection, but pronounce a righteous sentence on him, and see it executed, in proportion to the crime, and that according to the law of retaliation:

but life shall go for life; in such a case where the life of a person must have gone, if the falsehood of the testimony had not been discovered, the false witness must suffer death; in other cases, where a member would have been lost, or the price of it paid for, the same penalty was to be inflicted:

eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot; that is, the price of an eye an eye, &c. see Exodus 21:23.

Deuteronomy 19:21 Parallel Commentaries

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The Testimony of Witnesses
…19Then shall you do to him, as he had thought to have done to his brother: so shall you put the evil away from among you. 20And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall from now on commit no more any such evil among you. 21And your eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Matthew 5:38 "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.'
Exodus 21:23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life,
Exodus 21:24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
Leviticus 24:20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury.
Deuteronomy 19:13 Show no pity. You must purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, so that it may go well with you.