The Book of the Covenant extends the right of release to females (Exodus xxi. 7) with a proviso. If her master has used her as a concubine he cannot sell her. Either he must continue to treat her as a wife or give her freedom. In the Code of Hammurabi the concubine has the same rights, whether she had been slave or free woman originally, if she has borne children. If she has not borne children to her master she may still be treated as a slave if a slave before. The contrast between the laws is only apparent. A Hebrew could not sell his slave whom he had used as concubine, although she were childless, and the Babylonian could. But, it must be noted that the Nippur copy of the Code, perhaps embodying South Babylonian custom such as Abraham may have learned in Ur, omits the clause allowing the sale of the childless slave-concubine. As a slave she had to go out in three years, if once a free woman, according to the Code (§ 176), which is the case contemplated by Moses who, however, permits six years’ servitude as in the case of male servants (Exodus xxi. 7). If the slave-girl became betrothed to her master’s son she rose to the status of a daughter, which conferred freedom despite her previous status. The Code of Hammurabi punishes kidnapping of a freeborn man with death (§ 14). To steal a slave was just common theft, and that also was punished with death (§ 15). Moses combines the two cases in one (Exodus xxi. 16): ‘he that stealeth a man shall surely be put to death.’ The clause which adds ‘and selleth him or if he be found in his hand’ constitutes no contrast. It does not appear very illuminating. For what purpose any one would steal a man except to sell him as a slave or keep him as such is not easy to see. But it does recall the insistence of the Code that a man-stealer to be convicted as such must be caught ‘with the slave in his hand’ (§ 19). In fact the Book of the Covenant seems here to have somewhat awkwardly condensed §§ 14-20 of the Code, attempting to make the law apply to any man, slave or free, without expressly naming the slave. But it does name one case which Hammurabi omitted to notice—when the man-stealer had succeeded in selling his capture. The sale might be difficult to prove, but in a country where scarcely anything was sold without a deed of sale on which the Code insists so clearly no buyer would easily be found. In any case Hammurabi could hardly have meant that a man-stealer was only to be punished if he had not succeeded in passing on his captive. How the Book of the Covenant contemplated proof of sale would be found does not appear. It is to be borne in mind that a man-stealer was only likely to attempt to kidnap a child or a slave. Hammurabi legislates fully for both cases; Moses apparently attempts to include all cases under one term and condenses the carefully distinguished cases of the Code, and leaves a law which as the Book of the Covenant now preserves its regulations can scarcely be called clear.