So far we have instituted a comparison between the Hammurabi Code and the Book of the Covenant without exploiting the subsequent Hebrew legislation. We have seen great likeness mingled with decided contrasts. We have followed quite carefully critical views without being able to exhaust all the ramifications of criticism. We have taken the usual acceptation of the Hebrew laws. Considerations of time and space prevent our extending our researches to the limits of exhausting our subject. Much clearly remains to be done. We could examine most of the points taken up much more closely. Before we leave this part of our subject let us look from another point of view at the cases of slavery already dealt with. The Book of the Covenant, Exodus xxi, legislates for slaves, both male and female, but especially for those of Hebrew race. A moment’s consideration will show that this is not an exhaustive treatment of the questions relating even to them; only selected points are dealt with. Now we may ask, Why should just those points be selected? Was it because the nomads before entering Canaan had no slaves, or were there none of the Hebrew race, or was it the case that in the desert none could sink so low? Or were there no slaves under the early kings of Israel? At what time did the use of slaves arise? Definite ideas on such points are necessary before theories of the date of the laws can be sustained. The usual view is that the institution of slavery is long anterior among the Israelites to the Book of the Covenant, whose regulations introduce no new regulations, only fix customary usages. On the other hand, a very frequent view is that a change in habits on entrance into Canaan had brought new conditions and so had given rise to new sociological problems. Perhaps the conquest of Canaan added largely to the numbers of slaves. The older views on the subject of slavery had to be modified in order to meet new conditions. The Book of the Covenant on this view did introduce new regulations which aimed at teaching a newly settled folk how to treat particular cases. Did the lawgiver, then, treat the subject _de novo_, or merely adopt regulations already in force in Canaanite cities, or did he seek inspiration from the land to which his people’s traditions ascribed their origin?