Abortion

This heading is treated narrowly. It points to two scripture passages: the Mosaic case-law about a pregnant woman injured during a fight, and a prophetic word in which a miscarrying womb appears as judgment. The relevant UPDV verses are quoted below in the wording they actually carry, which differs from familiar translations and does not always match the assigned heading.

The Striking of a Pregnant Woman

The Book of the Covenant addresses the case of bystander harm to a pregnant woman. UPDV reads the outcome as premature birth rather than miscarriage, and assigns penalties in two tiers depending on whether further harm follows: "And if men strive together, and hurt a pregnant woman so that her children are born prematurely and no harm follows; he will be surely fined, according to as the woman's husband will lay on him; and he will pay as the judges determine. But if any harm follows, then you will give soul for soul," (Ex 21:22-23). The fine in the no-harm case is determined by the husband and ratified by the judges; the lex talionis formula ("soul for soul") is reserved for the case in which harm does follow.

Miscarriage as Judgment

In Hosea's oracle against Ephraim, the prophet asks Yahweh to give what amounts to the loss of the next generation: "Give them, O Yahweh--what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts." (Hos 9:14). The petition pairs failure of conception's outcome with failure of nursing, framing reproductive loss as the form judgment takes against the nation.