Archæology and the BibleBarton, George A. (George Aaron)
Religion
Archæology and the Bible
Barton, George A. (George Aaron)
Bible -- Antiquities; Egypt -- Antiquities; Middle East -- Antiquities
§ 15. If a man causes a male or female slave of a palace, or the male
or female slave of a workingman to escape from the city gate, he shall
be put to death.
§ 16. If a man harbors in his house either a male or a female slave
who has escaped from a palace or from a workingman, and does not bring
him out at the summons of the officer, the owner of that house shall
be put to death.
§ 17. If a man finds in a field a male or a female slave who has
escaped and restores him to his owner, the owner of the slave shall
pay him 2 shekels of silver.
§ 18. If that slave will not name his owner, he shall bring him unto
the palace and they shall investigate his record and restore him unto
his owner.
§ 19. If he shall detain that slave in his house and afterward the
slave is found, that man shall be put to death.
§ 20. If the slave escapes from the hand of his captor, that man shall
declare it on oath to the owner of the slave and shall be innocent.
These laws are analogous to Exod. 21:16 and Deut. 23:15. The former
inflicts the death penalty for stealing a man and selling him, and the
latter prohibits one in whose house a fugitive slave has taken refuge from
returning the slave to his master. Slavery was not in Israel such a firmly
established institution as in Babylonia. (See Exod. 21:2-6; Deut.
15:12-18; Lev. 25:25-46.)
Housebreaking and Brigandage
§ 21. If a man breaks into a house, before that breach he shall be put
to death and thrown into it.
§ 22. If a man practices brigandage and is caught, that man shall be
put to death.
§ 23. If the robber is not caught, the man who is robbed shall declare
his loss, whatever it is, in the presence of a god, and the city and
governor in whose territory and jurisdiction the robbery was committed
shall compensate him for whatever was lost.
§ 24. If it is a life, that city and governor shall pay to his
relatives 1 mana of silver.[460]
Hebrew law presents an analogy to the last of these sections in Deut.
21:1-9, though in Israel no compensation was offered to the heirs of the
man who was slain, but a sacrifice was performed by the elders of the
nearest city, to purge it of innocent blood.
Stealing at a Fire
§ 25. If a fire breaks out in a man’s house, and a man who has come to
extinguish it shall cast his eye upon the furniture of the owner of
the house, and the furniture of the owner of the house shall take,
that man shall be thrown into that fire.
The Duties and Privileges of Soldiers, Constables, and Tax-collectors
§ 26. If a soldier or a constable[461] who is ordered to go on a
journey for the king does not go, but hires a substitute and
dispatches him instead, that soldier or constable shall be put to
death; his hired substitute shall appropriate his house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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