And what does the Hebrew say in Jeremiah 8:8?
I have no problem with any of this. Nor do I have a problem with a 'still born' child being dead in a miscarriage. I think that fits the Hebrew and the RSV.
Either way a 'fine' is imposed. But if the woman dies from the blow then it is life for life. That is how it was interpreted long ago, before abortion became a hot button topic. That's what I learned when studying it in 1972 anyway.
I do see how you get that interpretation, but I also see how the RSV got miscarriage which doesn't mean 'born early' as NIV says. And that changes 'our' assumptions about how we "rightly divide" the rest of those two verses.
Miscarriage or still born is shakol. Which does not appear in the passage:
Actually what we see is the first recorded fetal homicide law. Here's why:
Exodus 21: King James Version (KJV)
22 If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.
23 And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
Now another word for word literal translation from a modern English version.
Exodus 21: NASB
"If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman's husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
Exodus 21:22-25 NASB
http://bible.com/100/exo.21.22-25.NASB
Now we take a look at the Hebrew lexicon.
If men strive, and hurt a woman with child,
so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges
determine.
So that her fruit:
Hebrew: יֶלֶד
yeled
The KJV translates Strongs H3206 in the following manner:child (72x),
young man (7x),
young ones (3x),
sons (3x),
boy (2x),
fruit (1x),
variant (1x).
child, son, boy, offspring, youth
- child, son, boy
- child, children
- descendants
- youth
Yeled is not not miscarriage nor still birth, it's a live child.
Is there a Hebrew word for miscarriage and stillborn? Yes and it is not Yeled.
Exodus 23: KJV
26 There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.
The above now in the Hebrew lexicon:
שָׁכֹל
shakol
The KJV translates Strongs H7921 in the following manner:bereave (10x),
barren(2x),
childless (2x),
cast young(2x),
cast a calf (1x),
lost children (1x),
rob of children(1x),
deprived (1x),
misc (5x).
שָׁכֹלshâkôl, shaw-kole'; a primitive root; properly, to miscarry, i.e. suffer abortion; by analogy, to bereave (literally or figuratively):—bereave (of children), barren, cast calf (fruit, young), be (make) childless, deprive, destroy, × expect, lose children, miscarry, rob of children, spoil.
So we can see shakol is not used in
Exodus 21:22ff.
Yaled is alive; shakol is miscarriage.
Therefore to rightly divide here, the fine and punishment is based on the state of the offspring.