Whence-a-Word?: An Eye for an Eye

The phrase “an eye for an eye” describes a type of retributive justice. Known in legal circles as lex talionis, or “the law of retaliation,” it stipulates that a punishment or compensation be commensurate with the crime committed or damage caused. The expression entered our parlance through the Hebrew Bible, where this principle of natural law appears in the Book of Leviticus: “Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth” (Leviticus 24:19–20; cf. Exodus 21:23–25 and Deuteronomy 19:21). Because talionic laws are rooted in the legal traditions of […]