Chapter XIII: The Code of Hammurapi and the Pentateuch (2)

§ 166. If a man takes wives for the sons which he possesses, but has
not taken a wife for his youngest son, and afterward the father dies;
when the brothers divide, for their younger brother who does not have
a wife they shall present over and above his portion money for a
marriage-settlement, and shall enable him to take a wife.

§ 167. If a man takes a wife and she bears him children and that woman
dies, and after her he takes a second and she bears him children,
after the father dies, the children shall not share according to their
mothers. They shall receive the dowries of their respective mothers,
and the goods of their father’s house they shall share equally.

§ 168. If a man has set his face to cut off his son, and says to the
judges: “I will cut off my son,” the judges shall make investigation
concerning him; if the son has not committed a grave crime which cuts
off from sonship, the father may not cut off his son from sonship.

§ 169. If he has committed against his father a grave crime which cuts
off from sonship, he shall pardon him for the first offense. If he
commits a grave crime the second time, the father may cut off his son
from sonship.

§ 170. If a man’s wife bears him children and a slave-girl bears him
children, and the father during his lifetime says to the children
which the slave-girl bore him: “My children,” and counts them with the
children of the wife, after the father dies the children of the wife
and the children of the slave-girl shall divide equally the goods of
their father’s house. The sons that are sons of the wife shall at the
sharing divide and take.

§ 171. But if the father during his lifetime has not said unto the
children which the slave-girl bore him: “My children,” after the
father dies the children of the slave-girl shall not share with the
children of the wife. The slave-girl and her children shall be given
their freedom; the children of the wife may not put a claim upon the
children of the slave-girl for service. The wife shall receive her
dowry and a gift which her husband gave her and wrote upon a tablet
and may dwell in the dwelling of her husband as long as she lives and
eat. She may not sell it. After her it belongs to her children.

§ 172. If her husband has not given her a gift, they shall restore to
her her dowry and she shall receive from the goods of the house of her
husband the portion of one son. If the children abuse her in order to
drive her from the house, the judges shall investigate concerning her
and if they find the children in the wrong, that woman shall not go
from the house of her husband. If that woman sets her face to go out,
she shall leave with her children the gift which her husband gave her;
the dowry from the house of her father she shall receive and the
husband of her choice may take her.

§ 173. If that woman, where she has entered, bears children to her
later husband, after that woman dies the children of her first and her
later husband shall share her dowry.

§ 174. If she did not bear children to her later husband, the children
of her first husband shall receive her dowry.

§ 175. If a slave of the palace or the slave of a workingman takes the
daughter of a patrician and she bears children, the owner of the slave
shall have no claim for service on the children of the daughter of a
patrician.

§ 176. But if a slave of the palace or the slave of a workingman takes
the daughter of a patrician, and when he takes her she enters together
with the dowry from her father’s house into the house of the slave of
the palace or the slave of the workingman; if after they are united
they build a house and acquire property and afterward the slave of the
palace or the slave of the workingman dies, the daughter of the
patrician shall receive her dowry and they shall divide into two parts
whatever her husband and herself had acquired after their union. Half
the owner of the slave shall take, and the daughter of the patrician
shall receive half for her children. If the daughter of the patrician
had no dowry, whatever her husband and herself had acquired after
their union they shall divide into two parts. The owner of the slave
shall take half and the daughter of the patrician shall receive half
for her children.

§ 177. If a widow whose children are minors sets her face to enter the
house of a second husband, she shall not do it without the consent of
the judges. When she enters the house of a second husband, the judges
shall inquire into the estate of her former husband, and the estate of
the former husband they shall entrust to the second husband and to
that woman, and shall cause them to leave a tablet (receipt). The
estate they shall guard and rear the minors. The household goods they
may not sell. The purchaser of household goods belonging to the
children of a widow shall forfeit his money. The goods shall revert to
their owners.

§ 178. If there is a wife of a god, priestess, or sacred harlot, whose
father has given her a dowry and written her a record of gift, and in
the record of gift he has not written, “after her she may give it to
whomsoever she pleases,” and has not given her full discretion; after
her father dies her brothers shall take her field and garden, and
according to the value of her share they shall give her grain, oil,
and wool, and shall content her heart. If her brothers shall not give
her grain, oil, and wool, according to the value of her share, and
shall not content her heart, she may let her field and garden unto any
tenant she pleases and her tenant shall maintain her. Her field,
garden, or whatever her father gave her she may enjoy as long as she
lives. She may not sell it for money or transfer it to another. Her
heritage belongs to her brothers.

§ 179. If there is a wife of a god, priestess, or sacred harlot, whose
father has given her a dowry and written a record of gift; and in the
record of gift he has written, “after her she may give it to
whomsoever she pleases,” and has granted her full discretion; after
her father dies she may give it after her to whomsoever she pleases.
Her brothers have no claim upon her.

§ 180. If a father does not give a dowry to his daughter, a priestess
living in the appointed house, or a sacred harlot, after the father
dies she shall receive from the goods of her father’s house the same
share as one son, and as long as she lives she shall enjoy it. After
her it belongs to her brothers.

§ 181. If the father of a priestess, sacred harlot, or temple maiden
gives her to a god and does not give her a dowry, after the father
dies she shall receive from the goods of her father’s house a third of
the portion of a son and shall enjoy it as long as she lives. After
her it belongs to her brothers.

§ 182. If a father does not give a dowry to his daughter, a priestess
of Marduk of Babylon, and does not write a record of gift for her;
after her father dies she shall receive from the goods of her father’s
house one-third of the portion of a son, and shall pay no tax. A
priestess of Marduk after her death may leave it to whomsoever she
pleases.

§ 183. If a father presents a dowry to his daughter who is a
concubine, and gives her to a husband and writes a record of gift;
after the father dies she shall not share in the goods of her father’s
house.

§ 184. If a father does not present a dowry to his daughter who is a
concubine and does not give her to a husband; after her father’s death
her brothers shall give her a dowry according to the value of the
father’s estate and shall give her to a husband.

In comparison with these Babylonian laws of inheritance those in the Old Testament are comparatively simple. We learn from Deut. 21:15-17, that a man’s firstborn son received a “double portion” of his father’s estate, _i. e._, twice as much as any other son. The inference is that the other sons shared equally. This law also provides that, when a man has two wives, the sons of the favorite wife shall have no advantage as to inheritance over the sons of the less loved wife. In Num. 27:8-11 it is provided that if a man has no son, his estate (_i. e._, real estate) may go to his daughter; if he has no daughter, it may go to his brothers; if no brothers, it goes to his father’s brothers. If his father has no brothers, the estate is to go to the next of kin. In Num. 36:2-12 the law that a daughter may inherit her father’s estate is supplemented by the provision that such a daughter must marry within the tribe, so that the landed property may not in the next generation pass out of the tribe.

Such were the Hebrew laws of inheritance. They apply to a much less complexly organized society than the Babylonian.

§§ 168, 169 of Hammurapi’s code deal with the cutting off of a son. This is paralleled in Deut. 21:18-21, though punishment inflicted by the law in Deuteronomy is quite different from the Babylonian, since the Hebrew boy, whose parents have proved him before the elders to be unworthy of sonship, was not cast out and sent away, but stoned to death. Another form of this law appears in Exod. 21:17.

Adoption

§ 185. If a man takes a young child in his name unto sonship and
brings him up, one may not bring a claim for that adopted son.

§ 186. If a man takes a young child unto sonship, and when he has
taken him he rebels against his [adopted] father and mother, that
foster-child shall return to his father’s house.

§ 187. One may not bring claim for the son of a temple-servant, a
palace guard, or of a sacred harlot.

§ 188. If an artisan takes a son to sonship and teaches him his
handicraft, one may not bring claim for him.

§ 189. If he does not teach him his handicraft, that foster-son may
return to the house of his father.

§ 190. If a man does not count among his sons a young child whom he
has taken to sonship and reared, that foster-child may return to his
father’s house.

§ 191. If a man who takes a young child to sonship and rears him and
establishes a house and acquires children, afterward sets his face to
cut off that foster-son, that son shall not go his way. The father who
reared him shall give him from his goods one-third the share of a son
and he shall go. From field, garden, or house, he shall not give him.

In the codes of the Old Testament there are no laws of adoption. The story of the adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh by Jacob in Gen. 48 shows that the idea was not unknown to the Hebrews, among whom the ceremony of adoption would seem to have consisted of the act of acknowledging the children as one’s own by placing one’s hands on their heads and giving them a paternal blessing.

Renunciation of Sonship

§ 192. If the son of a temple-servant or the son of a sacred harlot
says to the father that brought him up or to the mother that brought
him up, “Thou art not my father,” or, “Thou art not my mother,” they
shall cut out his tongue.

§ 193. If the son of a temple-servant or the son of a sacred harlot
has identified his father’s house and hated the father who brought him
up or the mother who brought him up and goes back to his father’s
house, they shall pluck out his eye.

The Old Testament has no laws with which to compare these. The two classes of persons whose children are mentioned were banished from Israel by Deut. 23:17, 18.

Wet-nurses or Foster-mothers

§ 194. If a man gives his son unto a nurse and his son dies in the
hands of the nurse and the nurse substitutes another child without the
consent of the father or the mother, they shall prosecute her; because
she substituted another child without the consent of his father or his
mother they shall cut off her breast.

This law also is without Biblical parallel.

Assault and Battery

§ 195. If a son strikes his father, they shall cut off his hand.

§ 196. If a man destroys the eye of the son of a patrician, they shall
destroy his eye.

§ 197. If he breaks a man’s bone, they shall break his bone.

§ 198. If one destroys the eye of a workingman or breaks the bone of a
workingman, he shall pay 1 mana of silver.

§ 199. If one destroys the eye of a man’s slave or breaks the bone of
a man’s slave, he shall pay half his value.

§ 200. If a man knocks out the tooth of a man of his own rank, they
shall knock his tooth out.

§ 201. If one knocks out the tooth of a workingman, he shall pay ⅓ of
a mana of silver.

§ 202. If a man shall strike the private-parts of a man who is of
higher rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-hide
scourge in the assembly.

§ 203. If a patrician strikes the private-parts of a patrician of his
own rank, he shall pay 1 mana of silver.

§ 204. If a workingman strikes the private-parts of a workingman, he
shall pay 10 shekels of silver.

§ 205. If the slave of a patrician strikes the private-parts of the
son of a patrician, they shall cut off his ear.

§ 206. If a man strikes a man in a quarrel and wounds him, he shall
swear, “I did not strike with intent,” and shall pay for the
physician.

§ 207. If from the stroke he dies, he shall swear [as above], and if
it was a patrician, he shall pay ½ mana of silver.

§ 208. If it was a workingman, he shall pay ⅓ of a mana of silver.

§ 209. If a man strikes a man’s daughter and causes a miscarriage, he
shall pay 10 shekels of silver for her miscarriage.

§ 210. If that woman dies, they shall put his daughter to death.

§ 211. If through a stroke one causes a miscarriage of the daughter of
a workingman, he shall pay 5 shekels of silver.

§ 212. If that woman dies, he shall pay ½ mana of silver.

§ 213. If one strikes the slave-girl of a man and causes a
miscarriage, he shall pay 2 shekels of silver.

§ 214. If that slave-girl dies, he shall pay ⅓ of a mana of silver.

These laws are strikingly parallel to Exod. 21:18-27, to which Exod. 21:12-14 should be prefixed. The Babylonian code, like the Hebrew, imposes the death penalty for wilful murder. Both codes provide that one who is an accidental homicide shall escape the penalty, but they do it in different ways. Hammurapi provides that the killer may take an oath that he did it without intent to kill. Exod. 21:13, 14 provides that the homicide may find sanctuary at the altar of God. In place of this Deut. 19:4, ff., provides that he may flee to a city of refuge.

If a man injures another in a fight, the Bible (Exod. 21:18, 19) provides that he shall pay for the lost time and, as does Hammurapi, the cost of healing the injured man. Exod. 21:22 provides, as does Hammurapi, for the payment of a fine for causing a woman to miscarry, but Exodus does not, like the Babylonian code, fix the amount of the damage; that is left to the judges. In the laws concerning the injury of slaves the two codes differ. Exodus provides (21:20, 21, 26, 27) for cases in which owners injure or kill their own slaves; Hammurapi, for cases in which the injury is done by others. A mere reading of the penalties imposed by the parts of the Babylonian code translated above impresses vividly upon the mind the fact that underlying many of them is the principle so forcibly expressed in Exod. 21:21-25: “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” The details of application are different, but the principle is the same. Many of the differences were caused by the more complex nature of Babylonian society, in which three classes, patricians, workingmen (or semi-serfs), and slaves, existed. Hebrew law recognizes but two classes--freemen and slaves.

Physicians

§ 215. If a physician operates upon a man for a severe wound with a
bronze lancet and saves the man’s life, or if he operates for cataract
with a bronze lancet and saves the man’s eye, he shall receive 10
shekels of silver.

§ 216. If it is a workingman, he shall receive 5 shekels of silver.

§ 217. If it is a man’s slave, the owner of the slave shall give the
physician 2 shekels of silver.

§ 218. If a physician operates upon a man with a bronze lancet for a
severe wound, and the man dies; or operates upon a man with a bronze
lancet for cataract and the man’s eye is destroyed, they shall cut off
his hand.

§ 219. If a physician operates with a bronze lancet upon the slave of
a workingman and causes his death, he shall restore a slave of equal
value.

§ 220. If he operates for cataract with a bronze lancet and destroys
his eye, he shall pay ½ his price.

§ 221. If a physician sets a broken bone for a man or has cured of
sickness inflamed flesh, the patient shall pay 5 shekels of silver to
the physician.

§ 222. If he is a workingman, he shall give 3 shekels of silver.

§ 223. If he is the slave of a patrician, the owner of the slave shall
give 3 shekels of silver to the physician.

§ 224. If an ox-doctor or an ass-doctor treats an ox or an ass for a
severe wound and saves its life, the owner of the ox or the ass shall
pay to the physician ⅙ of a shekel of silver as his fee.

§ 225. If he operates upon an ox or an ass for a severe wound and it
dies, he shall give unto the owner of the ox or the ass ¼ of its
value.

These laws about physicians have no parallel in the Old Testament, the laws of which did not take account of the existence of doctors. They are of interest, since they show the antiquity of physicians in Babylonia, not only for men, but for animals. They also reveal the fact that the practice of medicine in Babylonia was attended by some risks!

Herodotus (I, 197) declares that the Babylonians had no physicians, but brought their sick out into the streets and asked of each passer-by whether he had had a like sickness and what he had done for it. Possibly, as among ourselves, there were many who did not wish to incur the expense of a doctor, and who did as Herodotus reports, but these laws, and the existence of physicians at Nineveh at the time of the later Assyrian kings, make it probable that Herodotus was wrong as to their non-existence at Babylon in his day.

Laws of Branding

§ 226. If a brander without the consent of the owner of a slave cuts a
mark on a slave, making him unsalable, they shall cut off the hands of
that brander.

§ 227. If a man deceives a brander and he brands a slave with a mark,
making him unsalable, they shall put that man to death and cause him
to perish in the gate of his house. The brander shall swear: “I did
not brand him knowingly” and shall go free.

These laws have no parallel in the Old Testament. Evidently the simpler organization of Hebrew society made them unnecessary.

Responsibility of House-builders

§ 228. If a builder builds a house for a man and completes it, he
shall give him as his wages 2 shekels of silver for each _Shar_ of
house.

§ 229. If a builder builds a house for a man and does not make its
work strong and the house which he made falls and causes the death of
the owner of the house, that builder shall be put to death.

§ 230. If it causes the death of the son of the owner, the son of that
builder shall be put to death.

§ 231. If it causes the death of a slave of the owner of the house, a
slave like the slave he shall give to the owner of the house.

§ 232. If it destroys property, he shall restore whatever was
destroyed, and because he did not build the house strong and it fell,
he shall rebuild the house that fell from his own property.

§ 233. If a builder builds a house for a man and does not make his
work strong and a wall falls, that builder shall strengthen that wall
at his own expense.

These laws have no parallel in the Bible. Among the agricultural population of Palestine builders were not a separate class. The penalties inflicted by the Babylonian code were severe, and yet, if modern legislators would put upon the house-builders of our time a similar responsibility for good work, fewer lives would be sacrificed by falling buildings.

Responsibility of Boatmen

§ 234. If a boatman builds a boat of 60 _Gur_ for a man, he shall give
him 2 shekels of silver as his wages.

§ 235. If a boatman builds a boat for a man and does not make his work
sound and in that year the boat is sent on a voyage and meets with
disaster, that boatman shall repair that boat and from his own goods
shall make it strong and shall give the boat in sound condition to the
owner of the boat.

§ 236. If a man gives his boat to a boatman for hire and the boatman
is careless and sinks or wrecks the boat, the boatman shall restore a
boat to the owner of the boat.

§ 237. If a man hires a boatman and a boat and loads it with grain,
wool, oil, dates, or any other kind of freight, and that boatman is
careless and sinks the boat or destroys its freight, the boatman shall
replace the boat and whatever there was in it which he destroyed.

§ 238. If a boatman sinks a man’s boat and re-floats it, he shall give
money for ½ its value.

§ 239. If a man hires a boatman, he shall give him 6 _Gur_ of grain a
year.

The Hebrews were not a maritime people, and had no such laws as these or the following.

The Collision of Ships

§ 240. If a boat that is floating downstream strikes a boat that is
being towed and sinks it, the owner of the boat that was sunk shall
declare in the presence of a god everything that was in that boat and
[the owner] of the boat floating downstream, which sunk the boat that
was being towed, shall replace the boat and whatever was lost.

There is, naturally, nothing similar to this in the Old Testament.

Laws Concerning Cattle

§ 241. If a man levies a distraint upon an ox as security for debt, he
shall pay ⅓ of a mana of silver.

§ 242. If a man hires for a year, the wages of a working ox is 4 _Gur_
of grain.

§ 243. The hire of a milch cow, 3 _Gur_ of grain for a year he shall
give.

§ 244. If a man hires an ox or an ass and a lion kills it in the
field, the loss falls on the owner.

§ 245. If a man hires an ox and causes its death through neglect or
blows, he shall restore to the owner an ox of equal value.

§ 246. If a man hires an ox and crushes its foot or cuts the cord of
its neck, he shall restore to the owner an ox of like value.

§ 247. If a man hires an ox and destroys its eye, he shall pay to the
owner of the ox money to ½ its value.

§ 248. If a man hires an ox and breaks off its horn, or cuts off its
tail or injures the flesh which holds the ring, money to ¼ of its
value he shall pay.

§ 249. If a man hires an ox and a god strikes it and it dies, the man
who hires the ox shall take an oath in the presence of a god and shall
go free.

§ 250. If an ox when passing along the street gores a man and causes
his death, there is no penalty in that case.

§ 251. If the ox of a man has the habit of goring and they have
informed him of his fault and his horns he has not protected nor kept
his ox in, and that ox gores a man and causes his death, the owner of
the ox shall pay ½ mana of money.

§ 252. If it is the slave of a man, he shall pay ⅓ of a mana of money.

§ 253. If a man hires a man and puts him over his field and furnishes
him with seed-grain and intrusts him with oxen and contracts with him
to cultivate the field, if that man steals the seed-grain or the crop
and it is found in his possession, they shall cut off his hands.

§ 254. If he takes the seed-grain, but enfeebles the cattle, from the
grain which he has cultivated he shall make restoration.

§ 255. If he shall let the cattle to a man for hire, or steal the
seed-grain so that there is no crop, they shall prosecute that man,
and he shall pay 60 _Gur_ of grain for each _Gan_.

§ 256. If he is not able to meet his obligation, they shall tear him
in pieces in that field by means of the oxen.

The Biblical legislation corresponding to this is found in Exod. 21:28-35, but it covers only a portion of the cases of which the Babylonian law treats. It provides that, if an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned. If the ox was wont to gore and the owner had not kept it in, but it had been permitted to kill a man or a woman, the owner as well as the ox should be stoned. At the discretion of the tribunal a fine or ransom might be laid on the owner. In case the ox gored a slave, the owner of the ox was to pay 30 shekels of silver and the ox was to be stoned. If a man opened a pit and a neighbor’s ox or ass fell into it, the digger of the pit must make good the loss to the owner of the animal, and the dead beast became the property of the digger of the pit. If one man’s ox killed the ox of another man, the two men were to sell the live ox and divide the price. If it were known that the ox was wont to gore in the past, and its owner had not kept it in, he was to pay ox for ox, and the dead animal should be his.

It thus appears that the exigencies of Hebrew agricultural life were different from those of Babylonia, and were naturally met in different ways.

Wages of Laborers

§ 257. If a man hires a field-laborer, he shall pay him 8 _Gur_ of
grain per year.

§ 258. If a man hires a herdsman, he shall pay him 6 _Gur_ of grain
per year.

Hebrew law did not regulate wages.

On Stealing Farming-tools

§ 259. If a man steals a watering-machine from a field, he shall pay
to the owner of the watering-machine 5 shekels of silver.

§ 260. If a man steals a watering-bucket or a plow, he shall pay 3
shekels of silver.

As the Hebrews did not systematically irrigate their land, the Old Testament contains no similar laws.

Laws Concerning Shepherds

§ 261. If a man hires a herdsman to tend cattle or sheep, he shall pay
him 8 _Gur_ of grain per year.

§ 262. If a man, oxen, or sheep ..............

(The rest is broken away.)

§ 263. If he loses an ox or a sheep that is intrusted to him, he shall
restore ox for ox and sheep for sheep.

§ 264. If a herdsman who has had cattle or sheep intrusted to him
receives his full pay and is satisfied, and he causes the cattle or
the sheep to diminish in number or lessens the birth-rate, he shall
give increase and produce according to his contracts.

§ 265. If a shepherd to whom cattle or sheep have been given to tend
is dishonest and alters the price or sells them, they shall prosecute
him, and he shall restore to their owner 10 times the oxen or sheep
which he stole.

§ 266. If in a fold there is a pestilence of a god, or a lion has
slain, the shepherd shall before a god declare himself innocent, and
the owner of the fold shall bear the loss of the fold.

§ 267. If the shepherd is careless and causes a loss in the fold, the
shepherd shall make good in cattle or sheep the loss which he caused
in the fold and shall give them to the owner.

The nearest approach in the Old Testament to laws of this character is in Exod. 22:10-13, which provides that, if a man deliver to his neighbor an ox, or ass, or sheep, or any beast to keep, and it dies, or is injured or is carried off when no one sees the deed, the oath of Jehovah shall be between them that the keeper has not put his hand to his neighbor’s goods. The owner was to accept this, and no restitution was necessary. If the animals were stolen from the keeper, he must make restitution. If they were torn in pieces by beasts of prey, he must bring the pieces for witness, and need not make restitution.

The same general principles of the limits of responsibility underlay the two codes in these cases, though they differ in details. In Israel the shepherding of the flocks and herds of other people was not, as in Babylonia, a distinct occupation.

On Wages of Animals and Men

§ 268. If a man hires an ox for threshing, 20 _Qa_ of grain is its
hire.

§ 269. If he hires an ass for threshing, 10 _Qa_ of grain is its hire.

§ 270. If he hires a kid for threshing, 1 _Qa_ of grain is its hire.

§ 271. If he hires cattle, a wagon and a driver, he shall pay 180 _Qa_
of grain per day.

§ 272. If a man hires a wagon only, he shall pay 40 _Qa_ of grain per
day.

§ 273. If a man hires a field-laborer from the beginning of the year
until the fifth month, he shall pay him 6 _She_ of silver per day;
from the sixth month to the end of the year, 5 _She_ of silver per day
he shall pay.

§ 274. If a man hires an artisan, he shall give per day as the wages
of a ..... 5 _She_; as the wages of a brick-maker, 5 _She_ of money;
as the wages of a tailor, 5 _She_ of silver; as the wages of a
stone-cutter, ...... _She_ of silver; ............ _She_ of silver;
............ _She_ of silver; ............ of a carpenter, 4 _She_ of
silver; as the wages of a ...... 4 _She_ of silver; as the wages of a
...... _She_ of silver; the wages of a builder, ...... _She_ of
silver.

§ 275. If a man hires a boat (?) to go upstream (?), its hire is 3
_She_ of silver per day.

§ 276. If he hires a boat to float downstream, he shall pay as its
hire 2½ _She_ of silver per day.

§ 277. If a man hires a boat of 60 _Gur_ burden, he shall pay ⅙ of a
shekel of money per day.

There are no parallels to these laws in the Bible, as the Old Testament does not attempt to regulate prices. When one considers the customs of trade all over the Orient, and the time fruitlessly consumed in making bargains, one does not wonder that the practical sovereign of a great commercial people, such as the Babylonians were, should regulate prices by law. As a rule, to this day, a purchaser begins by offering only a fraction of what he is willing to give, and the seller by asking at least twice as much as he is willing to take. A long psychological battle follows, during which there are many victories and capitulations on each side. This law was designed to put an end to this time-consuming custom.

When the Sales of Slaves are Void

§ 278. If a man buys a male or a female slave and before a month is
past he has an attack of rheumatism (?), he shall return to the
seller, and the purchaser shall receive back the money that was paid.

§ 279. If a man buys a male or a female slave, and another has a legal
claim upon him, the seller shall be responsible for that claim.

§ 280. If a man, while in a foreign country, purchases a male or a
female slave of a man, and, when he returns home, the former owner of
the male or the female slave recognizes his slave, if that male or
female slave is a native of the land, he shall give it its freedom
without recompense.

§ 281. If they are natives of another country, the purchaser shall
declare in the presence of a god the price that he paid, and the
former owner of the male or female slave shall pay the price to the
merchant, and shall receive back his slave.

No laws similar to these are found in the Old Testament.

The Penalty for Renouncing a Master

§ 282. If a slave shall say to his owner: “Thou art not my owner,”
they shall make him submit as his slave, and shall cut off his ear.

This penalty reminds one of the boring of a slave’s ear (Exod. 21:6; Deut. 15:17) in token of perpetual slavery.

=2. The Mosaic Code not Borrowed from the Babylonian; Different Underlying Conceptions.=

A comparison of the code of Hammurapi as a whole with the Pentateuchal laws as a whole, while it reveals certain similarities, convinces the student that the laws of the Old Testament are in no essential way dependent upon the Babylonian laws. Such resemblances as there are arose, it seems clear, from a similarity of antecedents and of general intellectual outlook; the striking differences show that there was no direct borrowing. The primitive Semitic custom of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth (Exod. 21:24; Lev. 24:20; Deut. 19:21) is made the basis of many penalties in the Babylonian code. (See §§ 196, 197, 200, 229, 230, etc.) The principle underlying it is found also in many other sections. These similarities only show that Babylonia had a large Semitic element in its population. Again, Hammurapi pictured himself at the top of the pillar on which these laws are written as receiving them from the sun-god (Fig. 292). The Bible tells us that Moses received the laws of the Pentateuch from Jehovah. The whole attitude of the two documents is, however, different. Hammurapi, in spite of the picture, takes credit, both in the prologue and in the epilogue of his code, for the laws. He, not Shamash, established justice in the land. Moses, on the other hand, was only the instrument; the legislation stands as that of Jehovah himself.

This difference appears also in the contents of the two codes. The Pentateuch contains many ritual regulations and purely religious laws, while the code of Hammurapi is purely civil. As has been already pointed out, the code of Hammurapi is adapted to the land of the rivers, and to a highly civilized commercial people, while the Biblical laws are intended for a dry land like Palestine, and for an agricultural community that was at a far less advanced stage of commercial and social development.

Religion is, however, not a matter of social advancement only. In all that pertains to religious insight the Pentateuch is far in advance of Hammurapi’s laws.