No, it is a quotation from Exodus in which a person who has taken the eye of another in a fight is instructed to give his own eye in compensation. Seemingly, the belief that one of the purposes of the law is to provide equitable retaliation for an offended party. It defined and restricted the extent of retaliation, in a set of codes set out by Hammurabi, king of Babylon.
I would suggest the Q proposes the simplest form as a way of life � mirror punishment � since effectively we really do still live in a time that prescribes particular penalties for particular crimes, albeit without medieval capital punishment or residual compensation value for a persons life (You killed my husband, you owe me 3 goats, 2 pigs and a turnip).
The problem with your example of murder is that there is no distinction between accidental manslaughter, self defence and deliberate murder. Hence it just becomes a vengeful retribution - and as we all know, one of those could lead to another etc etc. The Babylonian laws put a limit on such actions, restricting the retribution to be no worse than the crime, as long as victim and offender occupied the same status in society. This is something from my experience of Deera Square, Riyadh that was simply lacking, more often street entertainment and the parading of peasants for the vulgar humour of the barbaric upper echelons.