And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein;
33. And if a man shall open a pit He enumerates still more cases of damage inflicted, in which restitution is to be demanded of the person who gave occasion for the occurrence. First, it is said, If a man shall open a pit, or cistern, and not cover it, and an animal shall fall into it, he is bound to pay its value; and...
The law shields pregnant women with tender care, the tree and fruit must not be destroyed together. God's providence protects those who fear Him in child-bearing. Yet mark this: the lex talionis belongs to magistrates and God's hand in providence, never to private revenge, which would make men like fishes of the sea, devouring one another.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 21:22-36
If a man shall open a pit,.... That has been dug in time past, and filled up again, or take the covering from it, and leave it uncovered: "or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it": a new one, in the street, as the Targum of Jonathan; or in a public place, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra; otherwise a man might...