21:22-25 so she gives birth prematurely: It appears that if a child’s birth was caused prematurely and the child died (i.e., there was further injury), the penalty for murder was to be enacted. The law of retaliation (the lex talionis) called for a penalty that matched the injury inflicted on a victim. But this law also served to limit the punishment so it was not more severe than the original injury. Cp. Matt 5:38-39.