quotation of the fuller statement the fact was overlooked that some of its clauses were unsuited to the cases under consideration. It is no excuse to say that it looked back over all the preceding cases of assault, for ‘burning’ nowhere applies. The only clause which really applies is the first, ‘life for life’. Doubtless some critical rearrangement may be made to justify the use of the clauses somewhere, but as it stands it looks like a stupid interpolation or an undiscerning quotation of the law of retaliation bringing in the sense ‘if any mischief follow then it shall come under the law of retaliation’. That would yield some sense if interpreted with common sense in particular cases. The Code of Hammurabi is much more distinct. If miscarriage followed, a fine was set down. If the woman died also, the assailants daughter was put to death when the dead woman was of patrician family, otherwise a fine was set down. The Book of the Covenant evidently held to the strict retaliation throughout, but gave no hint as to how it was to be carried out. The Code slips into the same vagueness if the assailant had no daughter to pay the penalty of her father’s fault. In the case of the injured woman in Exodus xxi. 22, the punishment, if no mischief follow, was left to be assessed by her husband, obviously for motives of delicacy; but the decision of the amount to be paid lay finally with the judges. In Hammurabi’s Code it was fixed by statute and graded according to the status of the woman (§§ 209-14). What, we may ask, is the essential difference? Can any one suppose that in Israel the husband could demand and secure what compensation he chose? Surely the Hebrew law is a concise way of saying the same thing as Hammurabi’s Code does. The scale of payment could hardly be expected to be the same in both lands owing to the difference in money values. A discretionary power in the judges, or a liberty of composition between the parties, is implied in the Code which everywhere states maximum penalties. This is made clear by contemporary practice. Both legislations further take into account the possible death of the woman herself. Else, what is the meaning of the phrase ‘and if mischief follow’? The Hebrew law, however, in that case legislates most awkwardly for what could hardly happen in its endeavour exhaustively to express the law of retaliation which was to rule the case.