Cases of theft show much the same treatment, allowing for adaptation to changed circumstances. The burglar in the Code of Hammurabi was killed on the spot and gibbeted before the breach he had made. In the Book of the Covenant this right to self-help is only allowed if the burglary takes place at night. It may be that the Code also contemplates nocturnal burglary alone, as did the Roman XII Tables. There is, however, no explicit statement on the point. The case of burglary in daylight, however, implies the possibility of calling in assistance. That the death penalty should be inflicted in the Code of Hammurabi for the brigand, for the thief who enters a temple or palace, both public treasuries, to steal, for the stealer at a neighbour’s fire, are not to be alleged as contrasts so long as we do not know what the penalties inflicted on such criminals should be. We cannot suppose such crimes unknown in Israel or so rare as not to be dealt with. All we can say is that what we have left of the Book of the Covenant does not notice them. A very remarkable set of differences strikes our attention when we consider the fines for theft or fraud. In the Code of Hammurabi restitution might be demanded up to thirty-fold in some cases or only double in others. In the Book of the Covenant it ranges from double to five-fold. The treatment is certainly completely independent. Actual reasons for the amount of penalty are given in no single case. We may suggest some, with little confidence, however, in their real influence in antiquity. That the Code of Hammurabi punishes the aristocrat so sharply may have been due to the uneradicated predatory instinct of his Amorite retainers, or to the arrogance of conquerors who were disposed to hold that the conquered had no rights against them. That the Book of the Covenant instances only ox and sheep may be due to the fact that its legislation was meant for a pastoral folk entering upon a new environment. The peculiar numerical calculations which brought about the penalty of multiple restitution and decided how many times may have been founded on some theory as to the significance of numbers which now escapes us. But one point must be carefully borne in mind. The Code of Hammurabi states the maximum penalty. Its ‘shall’ is not imperative but permissive, it may best be rendered ‘may’. A considerable licence was allowed to judges, and there was always appeal to a higher court and ultimately to the king.