Exodus 21:25

Study note

Setting — Moses transmits this statute to the Israelites at Sinai, positioned directly between the eye-tooth-hand-foot retaliation list of Exodus 21:24 and the blind-servant compensation rule of Exodus 21:26.

The words — The structure relies on תַּחַת (Ta.chat), literally "in place of," which links the compensable injuries כְּוִיָּה (ke.vi.Yah) for "burning" and חַבּוּרָ֕ה (cha.bu.Rah) for "wound" to their measured restitution.

The thread — The text explicitly adds burns and stripes to the injury categories listed in Exodus 21:24, extending the proportional retaliation principle that runs through the surrounding covenant code regulations.

Why it lands — The passage requires exact, injury-matched compensation rather than disproportionate retaliation, demanding that the reader apply measured restitution to specific physical harms.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.