“If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
Exodus has a few obvious character candidate, but the passage that stood for me was the first mention of an eye for an eye etc in the bible. Surprisingly this was in the context of a pregnant woman. On first reading, and as a result of using the NIV, it sounds as if the woman’s husband can demand punishment as a result of serious injury to the unborn baby. However other translations, and the footnote in the NIV, refer to miscarriage so I guess the serious injury must relate the the pregnant woman, rather than her unborn. The “New Life Version” made it clearer in this instance. I think God still cares for the unborn, but I guess, pre-ultrasound, it is harder to assess whether injury is a result of the fight or otherwise.
Another thing that struck me is that there is no question of a man hitting a pregnant woman intentionally. There are a couple of chaps having a bust up in a bar, and she gets caught it the cross-fire as one has his face rearranged with a lump of wood. They really must have been going some! So next time you’re in a fight, please mind you don’t hurt any pregnant women.
The photo
Unfortunately I didn’t have any obviously pregnant women available for the photo, so I’ve had to make do with my wife’s stretch marks and deformed belly button left over from her pregnancy with our little girl. I think they’re rather pretty!
70mm @ f22 1/125s using studio flash + snoot
Update: Note that I said obviously pregnant. My wife was about 10 weeks pregnant at the time, with our son John. I couldn’t tell people when I wrote the post.