Exodus 21:22

Summary

The verse describes a legal case: when men fighting strike a pregnant woman and her children come out (are born) without fatal harm, the responsible party must pay a fine. The amount is set through negotiation between the woman's husband and a judicial process.

Key words

• yinnatzu ("they will struggle together", H5327A) — niphal imperfect, giving the fight a reciprocal/mutual sense: the men struggle with each other, not simply "fight."
• yeladeiha ("her children", H3206) — plural noun in construct with the pronominal suffix "her." The plural form is notable; the Hebrew does not specify singular or plural outcome grammatically beyond this word.
• ason ("harm", H0611) — masculine singular noun with negation lo' ("not", H3808), stating only that some category of harm did not occur, without further specification in the Hebrew text itself.
• anosh ye'anesh ("surely he will be fined", H6064 + H6064) — infinitive absolute followed by the finite niphal imperfect of the same root. This doubling is a common Hebrew intensifying structure, marking the fine as certain/emphatic.
• ba'al ha'ishah ("husband of the woman", H1167H + H0802G) — construct chain meaning "the husband belonging to the woman," identifying who sets the demanded compensation.

What the text says

The verse opens with the conditional particle khi ("if", H3588A), introducing a case-law formula typical of this legal section of Exodus. The sequence of verbs after the initial niphal (yinnatzu) shifts to vav-consecutive perfects (nagfu, "they struck"; yatze'u, "they came out"; natan, "he will give"), a common narrative chain in Hebrew case law that links successive events in the described scenario: men struggle → they strike a pregnant woman → her children come out → no ason occurs → a fine is imposed.

The phrase yeladeiha ("her children," plural construct + suffix) is grammatically ambiguous as to whether it indicates one birth event described with a plural noun or something else; the Hebrew supplies no adjective describing the state of the offspring (alive, formed, etc.). The negated ason likewise is left undefined by the Hebrew grammar — it states absence of "harm" without lexical specification of what kind.

The compensation clause uses ka'asher ("as," H0834D) with yashit ("he will impose," H7896G) to describe a proposed amount from the husband, followed by natan biflilim ("he will give for the estimate/adjudication," H5414N + H6414), placing the final determination through a plural noun tied to judicial assessment.

Differences between versions

The LXX specifies "δύο ἄνδρες" ("two men"), a numeral not present in the Hebrew anashim ("men," H0582), which is unspecified in count. Where the Hebrew states children "come out" (yatze'u) without describing their condition, the LXX adds "μὴ ἐξεικονισμένον" ("not fully formed"), an interpretive qualifier absent from the Hebrew wording. The Vulgate similarly adds interpretive content not present in the Hebrew clause structure, rendering the outcome as "abortivum... sed ipsa vixerit" ("a miscarriage... but she lived"), specifying the woman's survival where the Hebrew only negates ason ("harm") without mentioning the woman's life status explicitly.