In the Book of the Covenant, then, it seems that a Hebrew was only likely to get into such a position as a result of crime for which he could not pay the fine or a theft which he could not restore, and so by judicial sentence or by voluntary self-assignment for debt. In such cases the law rules that whatever was the amount of debt six years’ service must be held to discharge it. That opened the way to abuses in two directions. The service might be an insufficient discharge, and so the holder, if the debt was due to him, or the purchaser of the convict, would be cheated; or the man who had suffered the theft be not remunerated. So it is not to be supposed that when a man was sold to pay for a theft which he had committed the buyer would pay more for him than he could reasonably expect to get back by six years’ service. Thus the way was opened to a second abuse, excessive exaction of labour from the slave. Later legislation recognized the existence of just these abuses and attempted redress. Now all this is completely like the Code of Hammurabi, which already provided for the abuses as well (§ 117 ff.). The Code deals with the man assigned, literally ‘named’, _nibutum_, like the Roman _nuncupatus_, to work off a debt. The Code expressly reserves the right of ‘naming’ this hostage to the debtor himself. The creditor had no power to seize the debtor or distrain on his goods or dependants. If he does he is fined and voids his debt at once. It also, like the Book of the Covenant, contains cases where a man might be sold with his family, and of course his goods, to pay a liability which he had incurred through culpable negligence. Neither it nor the Book of the Covenant expressly brings this case under the law of release. It does not record the case of a man actually ‘naming’ himself as _mancipium_. But that surely is not excluded from possibility, and we know from actually recorded cases that it occurred. The points of difference are (i) the term of service—fixed by the Code at three years, by the Book of the Covenant at six years; (ii) the regulations against the ill-treatment of the hostage; (iii) the regulation for the case of the man who wished to remain a slave for ever.