Exodus 21:22

Injury arising to a pregnant woman out of an affray.

And if men strive together i.e. quarrel and fight, ch. Exodus 2:13; 2 Samuel 14:6; Psalms 60 title. The same words in Deuteronomy 25:2. Not the verb used in v.18 (which means only to dispute in words).

hurt properly, smiteor strike(ch. Exodus 8:2; Isaiah 19:22): so v.35. Probably the woman is to be thought of (as in Deuteronomy 25:11) as intervening to separate the combatants.

her fruit depart Heb. her children(a generic plural) come forth(Genesis 25:25; Genesis 38:28).

but no(other) mischief happen] i.e. no permanent injury from the miscarriage. -Mischief" (" âsôn, v.23, Genesis 42:4; Genesis 42:38; Genesis 44:29 †) means some serious, or even (cf. v.23) fatal, bodily injury.

fined viz. for the loss of the child, which would have been the parents" property. Holzinger cites for parallels, among the Arabs, W.R. Smith, ZATW.1892, p. 163, and among the Kirghissians, in Turkestan, Radloff, Aus Sibirien(1884), p. 524; here, if a pregnant woman is injured so that her child is born dead, the penalty is a horse or a camel according to its age (the penalty for killing a free man being a fine of 100 horses, and for killing a woman or slave, 50 horses).

he shall pay(lit. give) with (the approval of) arbitrators] If the text is correct, the meaning apparently is that the amount of the fine, fixed in the first instance by the woman's husband, had, before payment, to be submitted to arbitrators, and approved by them. But the word for arbitrators is rare and poetical (Deuteronomy 32:31; Job 31:11 †), the use of the prep. ב is strange, the mention of arbitration is unexpected after the unconditional discretion just given to the husband, nor are any arbitrators mentioned in the similar enactment of v.30. Under these circumstances the clever suggestion of Budde, בנפלים for בפלילים deserves consideration, he shall pay it for the untimely birth (Job 3:16; Psalms 58:9), the plural being required on account of the plural -children," just before (concealed in EVV. by the rend. fruit: the ב pretii, as Deuteronomy 19:21). Cf. Ḥamm. §§ 209 214; Cook, p. 253 f.