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