Exodus 21:22-23: Miscarriage or something else??

[Jayne]

You know the passage.  Two men fighting and a pregnant woman gets hit.  The debate is over whether her suffering including a miscarriage or a premature birth.  And because some Bibles translate this as "miscarriage" and there is no penalty - then abortion advocates claim the Bible does not consider a fetus as having worth.

I see alot of people on a lot of social media sites questioning Exodus 21:22-23 as to what it means?  I'm of the opinion that the Bible should be studied and that includes word studies, contextual studies, and more.

Every Bible translation that is good and competent can have some words that either the translators did not know what was meant and the occassional poor choice of word meaning was chosen.  For example, the King James Bible, which is a very good Bible, has over 8,000 marginal notes of words that the KJB translators did not know what they meant.  They took their best guess.  I like the King James and a few others.  i can appreciate the terrible difficulty of competent translating.

The Hebrew, from the Tanakh, uses the word יָצָא [pronounced "yaw-tsaw"].  It means "to come out, to come forth, to cause to come out, to bring forth".  It says nothing about death in its lexicon meaning.

The majority of quality Bibles do not use the word "miscarriage" in this passage.  They use the following:

• NIV - "“If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury,....."
• NLT - "“Now suppose two men are fighting, and in the process they accidentally strike a pregnant woman so she gives birth prematurely. If no further injury results,..."
• ESV - "“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm,...."
• The Berean Bible - "If men who are fighting strike a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, but there is no further injury,.."
• King James Bible - "If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow:..."
• New King James - “If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, ..."
• NASB - "“Now if people struggle with each other and strike a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, but there is no injury,..."
• Holman Christian Standard Bible - "When men get in a fight and hit a pregnant woman so that her children are born prematurely but there is no injury,..."

This passage is clearly state two things: [Read the entire passage.]

1. If the woman is struck and she goes into a premature labor, but no harm is done to her OR her baby, the only penalty to be paid is a fine determined by the husband. And  if I were the husband, that fine would be pretty steep!
2. If the woman is struck and she goes into labor and either she, or the baby, or both of the suffer or  die, THEN a life for a life is the penalty.

Bible versions matter.  Study, learn word origins, and don't allow others who want to discredit the Bible to sway you from the truth.

Let's learn.  Let's learn.  Let's learn.

 

[R. Hartono]

We are not in the old Law.