The Bible calls for the death penalty for killing a baby in the womb "a life for a life" Ex 21:22-24
From the Hebrew of that text the child is premature birth. The penalty relates to harm to the woman.
However,
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Deut 25:11 If men are fighting one another[1] and the wife of one draws near to rescue her husband[2] from the hand of the one striking him, and she reaches out and grabs hold of[3] his private parts, 25:12 you shall cut off her hand. Show no pity.[4]
The term מבשים (
mevushim) is a
hapax legomenon likely derived from the stem ב.ו.שׁ (to feel shame, be ashamed), thus denoting “shameful things/parts” or “that which brings shame,” here used as a euphemism for the male genitalia.[5] Thus, the woman is trying to stop the man from hurting her husband by squeezing his testicles.
The verb form of ק.צ.צ used in the punishment is unusual. While in its more frequent
piel form the verb usually means to cut,[6] and is used to describe dismemberment,[7] the
qal form used here only occurs three other times in the Hebrew Bible—all in Jeremiah (Jer 9:25; 25:23; and 49:32)—where it refers to foreigners having hair that is cut or trimmed (likely at the temples). Nevertheless, context, plus cognate usage in Akkadian (
kaṣaṣu) and Aramaic (קצץ), point to the likelihood that קצץ in the
qal can also have the meaning “to cut off.”
The term כף (
kaph) comes from the stem כפף, which means “to bend, bow, or be bent, bowed.” It is used most commonly in reference to hands, often referring specifically to the palm (that is, the curved part) of the hand,[8] and is also commonly used as a synonym of יד (
yad) to refer to the whole hand (Exod 33:22, 23; and Isa 59:6).[9] The reason for the use of כף here as opposed to יד may be to avoid repetition, to clarify that hand is meant and not arm, or perhaps, bring to mind the woman’s grabbing a “handful” of the man’s testicles, highlighting the reason for the sentence.[10]
An Ancient Near Eastern Parallel
The Middle Assyrian Laws A8, lines 78-87, addresses a case that has several similarities to Deuteronomy 25:11–12:
If a woman should crush a man’s ball during a quarrel, they shall cut off one of her fingers. And even if the physician should bandage it, but the second ball then becomes infected (?) along with it and becomes..., or if she should crush the second ball during the quarrel—they shall cut off both her [...]-s.[11]
The two laws have several things in common: a woman getting involved in a fight, the strategy of grabbing a man’s testicles, and a punishment involving dismemberment. There are also some noteworthy differences:
Woman’s Identity—In the biblical law, the woman is specifically the wife of one of the men fighting who intervenes to save her husband. In the Assyrian law, no information is given about the woman’s identity, but she appears to be one of the people involved in the fight, not a bystander who intervenes to save someone.
Damage—In the biblical law, no damage to the testicles is specified. In the Assyrian law, it is stated explicitly that the woman has crushed one of the man’s testicles, and there is the possibility that both testicles are damaged.
Mutilation—While both punishments involve mutilation, the form it takes is somewhat different.
The similarities are probably not substantial enough to indicate a direct correlation between the two laws; rather, both were part of a larger common ancient Near Eastern legal tradition, in which case the potential damage to the man’s testicles might have been a consideration for the authors of the biblical law.[12] This sort of incident likely happened often enough and was considered serious enough that both law collections felt it needed to be addressed.[13]"
A Woman Who Seizes a Man’s Testicles During a Fight, Her Hand is Cut Off - TheTorah.com
