Shall make it good: the Hebrew verb used here means “make restitution” (New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible) or “make amends.” Specifically, the person who killed another person’s animal had to replace it with a similar live animal.

Life for life: this may have to be translated more explicitly in some languages. Possible models in this context are “Only a life can replace another life” or “Only a live animal can replace the one whose life was taken away.”

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .