“If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely fined as much as the woman’s husband demands and the judges allow.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 22. But live herself. So Josephus also reads, Ant. iv. 8. But Philo and the Septuagint have, “of a child unformed;” and verse 23, “But if the child be formed, (exeikonismenon, animated and organized) he shall give soul for soul;” as if all were referred to the child, which the Vulg. explains of the mother. To destroy the life of either was punished with death. “She who first taught the art of expelling the tender fœtus, deserved to perish by his own malice.” Ovid. Calmet.—The precise time when the soul begins to animate the body is so very uncertain, that, after conception, the person who should cause a miscarriage wilfully, would expose himself to incur the guilt of murder. Josephus, c. Ap. ii. shews how the Jews abhorred such wickedness. The Romans punished it with death. Bible.—Homicidii festinatio est prohibere nasci. Tert. apol. Onkelos says, that “if the mother should not die of the stroke, the offender was to satisfy the husband by paying a fine, to be awarded by the husband, or by the judges: but in case the mother died, he should render life for life:” ( Calmet.) in which decision he agrees with the Vulg. Bible.—The Hebrew is ambiguous, “If death ensue not.” Calmet.