> in general go eye for an eye on each other Note the original “eye for eye” statute was setting a judicial penalty limit, not giving people license to brutal

> in general go eye for an eye on each other Note the original “eye for eye” statute was setting a judicial penalty limit, not giving people license to brutal personal retaliation. This was important in legal history because ancient justice prior to that tended to severely over-penalize criminal violence. “Eye for eye” would have read “if a person gouges out another person’s eye, the penalty is (only) that their own eye should be gouged out” —- which would have seemed very lenient given the existing legal climate in the ancient near-east.