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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Matthew 5:38 - 5:38
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Mat 5:38-42. Same subject - Retaliation.
We have here the converse of the preceding lessons. They were negative: these are positive.
Ye have heard that it hath been said - (Exo 21:23-25; Lev 24:19, Lev 24:20; Deu 19:21).
An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth - that is, whatever penalty was regarded as a proper equivalent for these. This law of retribution - designed to take vengeance out of the hands of private persons, and commit it to the magistrate - was abused in the opposite way to the commandments of the Decalogue. While they were reduced to the level of civil enactments, this judicial regulation was held to be a warrant for taking redress into their own hands, contrary to the injunctions of the Old Testament itself (Pro 20:22; Pro 24:29).