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Law Code of Hammurabi (Wikimedia Commons)
Info Box: The Book of the Covenant (Exod 20:22–23:33) and the Code of Hammurabi
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Hammurabi was king of Babylon in the 18th century BCE (1792–1750). The main exemplar of his famous law code is on a 7.4 foot stele. Copies were installed in major cities, and the some 50 manuscripts, from Hammurabi’s time to the mid-1st millennium BCE, indicate that it was regarded as a standard of law. It was not the oldest code, but predated by the Sumerian Laws of Ur-Nammu and of Lipit-Ishtar and the Akkadian Laws of Eshnunna.
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Compare and contrast the laws from the Book of the Covenant (Exod 20:22–23:33) and the Code of Hammurabi. What similarities and dissimilarities do you observe? What do you think might be the nature of their relationship (e.g., borrowing, independent sources, common cultural tradition)? What do these comparisons suggest about the nature of biblical revelation and inspiration?
Debt Slavery
• When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free person, without debt. … If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s and he shall go out alone. … When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do (Exod 21:2–7, NRSV).
• If an obligation is outstanding against a man and he sells or gives into debt service his wife, his son, or his daughter, they shall perform service in the house of their buyer or of the one who holds them in debt service for three years; their release shall be secured in the fourth year (CH 117).
Striking a parent
• Whoever strikes father or mother shall be put to death (Exod 21:15, NRSV).
• If a child should strike his father, they shall cut off his hand (CH 195).
Kidnapping
• Whoever kidnaps a person, whether that person has been sold or is still held in possession, shall be put to death. (Ex 21:16, NRSV)
• If a man should kidnap the young child of another man, he shall be killed (CH 14).
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Injury from a quarrel
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• When individuals quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or fist so that the injured party, though not dead, is confined to bed, but recovers and walks around outside with the help of a staff, then the assailant shall be free of liability, except to pay for the loss of time, and to arrange for full recovery. When a slaveowner strikes a male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies immediately, the owner shall be punished. But if the slave survives a day or two, there is no punishment; for the slave is the owner’s property (Exod 21:18–21, NRSV).
• If an awÄ«lu should strike another awÄ«lu during a brawl and inflict upon him a wound, that awÄ«lu shall swear, “I did not strike intentionally,” and he shall satisfy the physician (i.e., pay his fees) (CH 206).
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Miscarriage
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• When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no further harm follows, the one responsible shall be fined what the woman’s husband demands, paying as much as the judges determine. If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life … (Exod 21:22–23, NRSV).
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• If an awÄ«lu strikes a woman of the awÄ«lu-class and thereby causes her to miscarry her fetus, he shall weigh and deliver 10 shekels of silver for her fetus. If that woman should die, they shall kill his daughter. If he should cause a woman of the commoner-class to miscarry her fetus by the beating, he shall weigh and deliver 5 shekels of silver. If that woman should die, he shall weigh and deliver 30 shekels of silver (CH 209–212).
Lex talionis (law of retaliation)
• If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. When a slaveowner strikes the eye of a male or female slave, destroying it, the owner shall let the slave go, a free person, to compensate for the eye. If the owner knocks out a tooth of a male or female slave, the slave shall be let go, a free person, to compensate for the tooth (Exod 21:23–27, NRSV).
• If an awÄ«lu should blind the eye of another awÄ«lu, they shall blind his eye…. If he should blind the eye of an awÄ«lu’s slave or break the bone of an awÄ«lu’s slave, he shall weigh and deliver one-half of his value (in silver). If an awÄ«lu should knock out the tooth of another awÄ«lu of his own rank, they shall knock out his tooth (CH 196, 199–200).
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Goring ox
• When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall not be liable. If the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not restrained it, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death. If a ransom is imposed on the owner, then the owner shall pay whatever is imposed for the redemption of the victim’s life. If it gores a boy or a girl, the owner shall be dealt with according to this same rule. If the ox gores a male or female slave, the owner shall pay to the slaveowner thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned (Exod 21:28–32, NRSV).
• If an ox gores to death a man while it is passing through the streets, that case has no basis for a claim. If a man’s ox is a known gorer, and the authorities of his city quarter notify him that it is a known gorer, but he does not blunt (?) its horns or control his ox, and that ox gores to death a member of the awÄ«lu-class, he (the owner) shall give 30 shekels of silver. If it is a man’s slave (who is fatally gored), he shall give 20 shekels of silver (CH 250–252).
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Theft
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• When someone steals an ox or a sheep, and slaughters it or sells it, the thief shall pay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. The thief shall make restitution, but if unable to do so, shall be sold for the theft. … When the animal, whether ox or donkey or sheep, is found alive in the thief’s possession, the thief shall pay double (Exod 22:1–4, NRSV).
• If a man steals an ox, a sheep, a donkey, a pig, or a boat — if it belongs either to the god or to the palace, he shall give thirtyfold; if it belongs to a commoner, he shall replace it tenfold; if the thief does not have anything to give, he shall be killed (CH 8).
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Other shared topics are death by striking and the safekeeping and rental of animals.
Detail of Hammurabi before Shamash, the sun god and god of justice (Wikimedia Commons)
The bulk of the parallels between the Book of the Covenant and ancient Near Eastern law codes occur in Exod 21:2–22:19. Thereafter the laws become more peculiarly Israelite, as evidenced in the next verse which prohibits sacrificing to any deity aside from Yahweh (Exod 22:20).
Following the laws that parallel the Code of Hammurabi are laws that are shaped by Israel's experience in Egypt and their theology of Yahweh and that forbid abuses of the disadvantaged.
Then, the repeated injunctions, “a sojourner you shall not abuse, nor oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Exod 22:21; 23:9), serve as bookends to laws that safeguard those marginalized in society who would be unable to defend themselves legally: the sojourner, the widow and orphan, the poor, and even the wandering ox belonging to one’s enemy.
It is noteworthy that Israel’s own experience of abuse informed their law code to ensure that future generations of Israelites would not abuse the helpless in their own society. In addition, these laws were informed by their theology of Yahweh. This section is also marked by explicit theological comments on Yahweh’s character of compassion and readiness to hear the cries of the oppressed and to execute justice on their behalf. It was not customary in other ancient Near Eastern societies that the behavior of the gods would serve as a model for humans to emulate.
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The remainder of the Book of the Covenant consists of two distinct bodies of material: a liturgical calendar (Exod 23:10–19) and—in anticipation of Yahweh’s driving out the Canaanites—a prohibition against forming a “covenant” with the Canaanites, which would lead to serving their gods (Exod 23:20–33). Israel’s covenant would be exclusively to Yahweh, as formalized in the following chapter. As a requisite part of any ancient Near Eastern covenant/treaty was invoking the gods of both states to serve as witnesses of the contract, cutting a covenant “with them” entails cutting a covenant “with their gods” and “invoking the names of other gods” (Exod 23:13, 32).
The sole action that the Israelites are to take against them here is to “tear down” their gods/idols and to “shatter their standing stones” (Exod 23:24). No action is prescribed against the Canaanites themselves—unlike the book of Deuteronomy, which commands the "ban" of destruction.
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A liturgical calendar lists the three pilgrim festivals, identified by their agricultural names.
The Pentateuch contains five liturgical calendars (Exod 23:10–19, E; 34:10–27, J; Deut 16: 1–17, D; Num 28:1–29:40, P; Lev 23:1–44, H), but the two embedded in the book of Exodus are likely the oldest.
The calendar in the Book of the Covenant begins with the sabbatical year, when the land is to lie fallow, for the benefit of the poor and the “creatures of the field” (usually wild animals). The sabbatical day, the seventh, allows working animals, servants, and sojourners to “take a breather” (literally). It is noteworthy that the stated reasons are not religious, theological, nor essential to Israelite identity, but are social and ecological.
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The annual calendar is marked by the three pilgrimage festivals/feasts, consistently referenced in all five liturgical calendars, but they are here identified by their agricultural names–Unleavened Bread (at the time of the barley harvest), Harvest (of wheat), and Ingathering (of fruit and olives)—not by their more familiar names of Passover, Weeks and Tabernacles. The first feast is linked with their departure from Egypt, but the second two with “sowing” and “gathering” from “the field.” Attendance is required by the “males,” presumably ensuring that the women and children are there to manage the farm and the herd back home. Although feasts are clearly a time of celebration, this short passage emphasizes they are to be observed “to me,” such that all worshipers are to “appear before me” (twice).
The latter phrase is problematic in Hebrew: “they shall not appear my face” (literally). Lacking is the expected preposition “before” in Exodus 23:15. (Exod 23:17 is also problematic, though more complicated to explain.)
The textual problem can be resolved with the hypothesis that the original Hebrew vowel points read, to “see my face,” but were altered later by well-meaning scribes who are troubled by the apparent contradiction that “man cannot see my face and live” (Exod 33:20). Yet, there may be no contradiction once interpreters recognize that Exodus 33:20 occurs in the context of a theophany, that is, a more literal encounter with God’s self-manifestation, while Exodus 23:15, 17 employ the metaphor of the subject/worshiper summoned to have an audience with the divine king at his palace/temple. Consistent with this metaphor is the admonition that the worshiper should not appear “empty-handed,” that is, without a gift of tribute to one’s monarch.
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A Second, Parallel Covenant (34:10–28). Parallel to the covenantal material in Exodus 20–24 (E) is another covenant in Exodus 34:10–28 (J). But in the final narrative sequence (once J and E are combined), this second covenant (“I am about to cut a covenant,” Exod 34:10, 27) is necessary because Israel had forfeited the first covenant (Exod 24:7–8) in the Golden Calf incident.
Because the Israelites broke the Sinai covenant, Yahweh "cuts" with them a second covenant, which includes another edition of a liturgical calendar.
(The combination of originally separate sources is evident in Exod 34:28, wherein Moses then “wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Words,” even though one cannot identify ten words or commandments in this passage.) The material in the second covenant is not as extensive and parallels only the last two sections of the Book of the Covenant, namely the prohibition of cutting a covenant with the Canaanites (Exod 23:20–33 // Exod 34:10–17) and the liturgical calendar (Exod 23:10–19 // 34:18–26).
While the Book of the Covenant prescribes only the “tearing down” at their gods and “shattering their standing stones”(Exod 23:24), this second covenant adds “cutting down their Asherah poles/trees” and most significantly a prohibition against intermarriage (Exod 34:13, 16). This second covenant reiterates the reminder that cutting a covenant with other peoples would entail “worshiping another god” (Exod 34:14 // Exod 23:24).
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This second liturgical calendar lists the same three pilgrimage festivals, but the second is named “Weeks,” instead of “Harvest,” though it does explicitly attach it to the “wheat harvest.” It also adds to the Feast of Unleavened Bread the rite of “redeeming” the firstborn, especially of human sons. The injunction of the sabbatical day is inserted between the first and second festivals.
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