Exodus 21:22-25 codifies the penalty for striking a pregnant woman. The NIV translation states:
“If people are fighting and 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."
There seems to be some controversy about whether the bolded text refers to the mother or the baby. It seems that either translation could be used by each side of the abortion debate to either show God's concern or disregard for the life of a fetus, and I have been unable to find a source that does not translate the passage in a way that doesn't serve their political interests.
Is there some way to tell from the original Hebrew which person this text refers to, or is it actually ambiguous?
Fyi. My translation (from jps) has that line as "...and a miscarriage results but no other damage ensues, the one responsible shall be fined according as the woman's husband may extract from him..." Also, if you look at the parts before and after, the miscarriage is being treated the same as a fight between two men (21:18), or when striking a slave (21:20) it is a crime of "property" (the miscariage) not a crime of life taking life)
I guess the question is, under Jewish law at the time, would someone be executed for causing a miscarriage if the woman was otherwise okay?