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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gives a thumbs up to supporters after speaking at a campaign rally on April 11 in Albany, New York. | Getty Trump's favorite Bible verse: 'Eye for an eye'

Donald Trump’s favorite Bible verse involves an “eye for an eye,” he said Thursday.

WHAM 1180 AM radio host Bob Lonsberry asked the Republican front-runner if he had a favorite verse or story from the Bible that’s impacted his thinking or character.

“Well, I think many. I mean, you know, when we get into the Bible, I think many. So many,” he responded. “And some people—look, an eye for an eye, you can almost say that. That’s not a particularly nice thing. But you know, if you look at what’s happening to our country, I mean, when you see what’s going on with our country, how people are taking advantage of us, and how they scoff at us and laugh at us.”

“And they laugh at our face, and they’re taking our jobs, they’re taking our money, they’re taking the health of our country,” he continued. “And we have to be firm and have to be very strong. And we can learn a lot from the Bible, that I can tell you.”

Trump appears to be referring to a passage from Exodus 21-24, which lays out the Old Testament rules governing personal behavior.

“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," the passage reads, in the King James translation. "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."

Another passage, Leviticus 24:19-21, reads, "And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him; breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it: and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death."

Biblical scholars generally interpret "eye for eye," which was derived from the ancient Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, as a restriction on retaliation for personal injuries — in other words, only an eye for an eye.

But in Matthew (5:38-42) in the New Testament, Jesus repudiates even that notion. "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away."

If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”

Trump, who has often mentioned the Bible as his favorite book, with "The Art of the Deal" second, gave a different answer when asked his favorite verse last September, telling the Christian Broadcasting Network that he often looked to the Book of Proverbs' chapter about envy. The Manhattan billionaire had struggled to articulate his favorite verse in an interview with Bloomberg Politics last August, remarking, "I wouldn't want to get into it. Because to me, that's very personal."

BuzzFeed first reported Trump's remarks.