It is a truer way to present the facts to say that both the Book of the Covenant and the Code of Hammurabi do not so much enact the _lex talionis_ as interfere to limit its action in certain directions. For example, it is scarcely correct to say in either case that murder was dealt with by the law of revenge or left to the avenger of blood to punish. In the Code murder in general is not mentioned; we cannot suppose it condoned. But as in the Book of the Covenant it is distinguished from manslaughter, and this is expressly exempted from the death penalty. The innocent man-slayer might take refuge at the altar, as was still the case with those who feared for their lives down to the time of Solomon. It is clear that a murderer might do the same, for he was to be taken thence. Some sort of trial must have taken place before he was delivered up to the avenger of blood. We are nowhere told what was the procedure in Babylonia, but we may assume it was the same, for the innocent man-slayer was liberated on oath of want of malice. The oath was taken at the altar or before the emblem of the god. It is singular enough that no penalty for murder is stated, but there is nothing whatever to indicate that it met with different treatment in Israel and Babylonia. In both legislations man-stealing is reckoned with murder and punished by death. So is witchcraft, according to the evident implications of the Code and the express declaration of the Book of the Covenant. That offences against parental authority were treated differently is to some extent true. They are summarily dealt with in the Book of the Covenant with a death penalty. The Code spares the son for a first offence in such crimes as would naturally disinherit him, and enacts mutilation for violence to a parent. One may question whether death or loss of the hands was the worse penalty in Babylonia, and may remember that some critics hesitate to ascribe the law enacting the death penalty to the Book of the Covenant. The fierce resentment of the sons of the desert against any form of mutilation would account for the substitution of the death penalty. Other cases of injury in the Book of the Covenant are treated as proper occasions for self-help or for private suits to be adjusted at the sanctuary. That is exactly the view taken by Hammurabi, only explicit provision is made for suits which cannot be so adjusted by judges. Contemporary legal practice bears witness to frequent settlements ‘out of court’.