LEV945 The firm foundation of the social order is justice. It probably dawned early in man's development as the simple rule which places all members of the tribe as equals before the chief and before the deity. In its forensic form it is embodied in the lex talionis, of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." "As one does so shall it be done to him" (Exodus 21:24; this and next verse). The rule of like for like applied only to tribesman. To strangers the rule of the jungle applied, of doing to them whatever was within one's power. Within the widening of social relations and sympathies, justice extended the sphere of its operations beyond the limits of the group and became intertribal and national, and it steadily strives to become international. (The primitive nature of the lex talionis showed itself in the mechanical mode of its execution, which ignored the total effect of its operation upon the victim. Pharisaic Judaism mitigated its harshness by introducing monetary compensation for physical injuries. "An eye for an eye" was interpreted to mean payment for the loss of the eye."
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