Lex talionis

"An eye for an eye" (Biblical Hebrew: עַיִן תַּחַת עַיִן, ʿayin taḥaṯ ʿayin) is a commandment found in the Book of Exodus 21:23–27 expressing the principle of reciprocal justice measure for measure. The earliest known use of the principle appears in the Code of Hammurabi, which predates the writing of the Hebrew Bible. The principle was famously repudiated by Jesus in the Sermon of the Mount, where he commanded Christians not to avenge evil done to them, but to instead turn the other cheek.

The law of exact retaliation (Latin: lex talionis), or reciprocal justice, bears the same principle that a person who has injured another person is to be penalized to a similar degree by the injured party. In softer interpretations, it means the victim receives the estimated value of the injury in compensation. The intent behind the principle was to restrict compensation to the value of the loss.