Discovery BoxLeviticus 24:18-21 
Context24:18 One who beats an animal to death 1 must make restitution for it, life for life. 2 24:19 If a man inflicts an injury on 3 his fellow citizen, 4 just as he has done it must be done to him – 24:20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth – just as he inflicts an injury on another person 5 that same injury 6 must be inflicted on him. 24:21 One who beats an animal to death 7 must make restitution for it, but 8 one who beats a person to death must be put to death.
1 tn Heb “And one who strikes a soul of an animal.”
2 tn Heb “soul under soul.” Cf. KJV “beast for beast”; NCV “must give…another animal to take its place.”
3 tn Heb “gives a flaw in”; KJV, ASV “cause a blemish in.”
4 tn Or “neighbor” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); TEV, NLT “another person.”
5 tn Heb “in the man [אָדָם, ’adam].”
6 tn Heb “just as he inflicts an injury…it must be inflicted on him.” The referent (“that same injury”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 sn See the note on v. 18 above.
8 tn Heb “and,” but here the Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) is adversative, contrasting the consequences of beating an animal to death with those of beating a person to death.
