Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. The series eye for eye, tooth for tooth is not a license for revenge but a ceiling on it: the punishment must match the harm, not exceed it. The tendency of wounded parties is to escalate — Lamech's boast in Genesis 4:23–24 to avenge himself seventy-seven times is the pre-law pattern. The lex talionis constrains that escalation by requiring proportionality. Romans 12:19 says do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: it is mine to avenge. The New Testament does not abolish the principle of proportional justice; it relocates its execution from personal retaliation to divine judgment.

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