Page 51 - Pentateuch

A comparison of law codes finds close parallels in many areas, even in the wording of specific laws. Scholars
identify several significant differences, however, between any of these codes and the Mosaic laws. The
Exodus laws placed a high value on human life and well-being. Physical mutilation was never an acceptable
form of punishment. Justice was equal for every person regardless of status in society. Thus, even slaves
had rights and privileges that had to be acknowledged. We might be critical of some aspects of the
treatment of women, yet in comparison to the degrading role of women in other ancient countries, the
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laws were more protective and a statement about the honor and dignity of women as human beings.

The Law Code of Hammurabi, about 1792-1750 B.C.

6. If a citizen has stolen property of the temple or of the crown, that man shall die, and whoever receives the
stolen goods from him shall die.
7. If a citizen has purchased or has accepted for safe custody silver, or
gold, or serf, or bondmaid, or ox, or sheep, or whatsoever it may be,
from the hand of the son of a citizen, or from the serf of a citizen,
without witnesses or contracts, that man is a thief, and he shall die.
148. If a citizen has taken a wife and intermittent fever attacks her,
and if he plans to take another wife, he may do so. He may not forsake
his wife, who is attacked by the intermittent fever, but she shall dwell
in a house which he has prepared, and he shall support her for life.
195. If a son strikes his father, they shall cut off his hand.
202. If a citizen strikes the cheek of his superior, he shall receive sixty
strokes with a thong.
214. If a bondmaid [struck by a citizen] dies as a result, he shall pay a third Fig. 32: Hammurabi laws
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of a mina of silver.

The Laws of Ur-Nammu, about 2100 B.C.

4. If the wife of a man, by employing her charms, followed after another man and he slept with her, they
(i.e., the authorities) shall slay that woman, but that male (i.e., the other man) shall be set free.

5. If a man proceeded by force and deflowered the virgin slave-woman
of another man, that man must pay five shekels of silver.
6. If a man divorces his primary wife, he must pay (her) one mina of
silver.
14. If a slave woman or a male slave fled from the master’s house and
crossed beyond the territory of the city, and another man brought h
er/him back, the owner of the slave shall pay to the one who brought
him back two shekels of silver.
17. If someone severed the nose of another man with a copper knife, he

must pay two-thirds of a mina of silver.
22. If a man’s slave-woman, comparing herself to her mistress, speaks Fig. 33: Ur-Nammu laws
insolently to her, her mouth shall be scoured with 1 quart of salt
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water.

58 Ibid., 205-207.
59 W. J. Martin, “The Law Code of Hammurabi, Documents from Old Testament Times, ed. D. W. Winton (New York:
Harper, 1961), 29-35.
60 J. B. Pritchard, ed., The Ancient Near East, vol. II (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975), 31-34.
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