Digest of Biblical Civil Law

It is difficult to determine whether this case law (Exo. 21:22-25) deals with an accidental or a deliberate assault.  The vagueness of the wording indicates that we should allow it to speak to either situation.  If the killing or maiming is accidental, then this law indicates that a man is responsible for his actions when he deliberately places himself in a situation where he loses control of himself. The drunk driver, by analogy, is guilty of murder if he runs over someone, because he is responsible for getting drunk and driving under those conditions.

- James Jordan, The Law of the Covenant 114-15 (1984), at http://www.garynorth.com/freebooks/: HTML, DjVu.