Does the law in Exodus 21:22-25, where men cause an unborn child to be born prematurely, show that abortion is not murder?

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Short answer: No. In fact it affirms an equal value for the life of the unborn child.

The Biblical law referenced in the question is the following:

22 “If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely fined as much as the woman’s husband demands and the judges allow. 23 But if any harm follows, then you must take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burning for burning, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise. Exodus 21:22-25WEB

This above scripture is often mistranslated in English, with the following Bible translations interpreting the Hebrew word וְיָצְא֣וּ as "miscarriage": NASB (1971-1994), RSV, NRSV, NEB. CEV, Douay-Rheims, NAB, Jerusalem Bible, Living Bible, Amplified Bible, Complete Jewish Bible, Artscroll Chumash English. Notice that the following English translations use a form of the translation: "the child comes out prematurely," which is literal: HCSB, KJV, NKJV, NASB (1995-), NIV, ESV, NET, ISV, WEB, YLT.

This (mis)translation has been used against Christians to claim that Biblical law doesn't treat an unborn child as a legally protected person. [Note: I would be interested to know how translations in other languages than English handle this verse.] The argument is something like the following:

  1. The verse implies that the unborn child is killed (based upon the translation "miscarriage").
  2. But "no harm follows" (by inference, to the woman)
  3. There is (apparently) only an unspecified monetary "fine" as a penalty; not the talion "life for life" judgment [1]
  4. Therefore, the unborn child does not merit the same protection under Biblical law as a regularly-born person.

Unfortunately, the translation "miscarriage" imports the idea that the woman's premature offspring died. But this is an unwarranted interpretive leap, given the original text says only: "her children come out" (Hebrew: יְלָדֶ֔יהָ וְיָצְא֣וּ). These same Hebrew words are used to describe the birth of living children in other parts of the scripture: Gen. 25:25-26, Gen. 38:28-29. There are actually two other words for miscarriage which Moses could have used, if he wanted to be more specific, but he chose not to. For a technical discussion of this verse, see H. Wayne House, "Miscarriage or Premature Birth", Westminster Theological Journal 41.1 (1978) 108-123.[2]

  1. Note, however, that Meredith Kline disagrees with this, and suggests a different way of understanding both verses. (Kline, "Lex talionis and the human fetus", JETS 20:3 [September 1977] p. 193)
  2. http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hildebrandt/otesources/02-exodus/text/articles/house-exod21-wtj.htm