Texts in Conversation
Exodus 21:16 states that kidnapping is a crime that requires the death penalty, following established ancient Near Eastern legal traditions. Its similarity to the Code of Hammurabi demonstrates how Exodus adopts a familiar legal model
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Code of Hammurabi
Babylonian Legal Text
Ancient Near East
11 If the owner do not bring witnesses to identify the lost article, he is an evil-doer, he has traduced, and shall be put to death 12 If the witnesses be not at hand, then shall the judge set a limit, at the expiration of six months. If his witnesses have not appeared within the six months, he is an evil-doer, and shall bear the fine of the pending case 14 If any one steal the minor son of another, he shall be put to death 15 If any one take a male or female slave of the court, or a male or female slave of a freed man, outside the city gates, he shall be put to death 16 If any one receive into his house a runaway male or female slave of the court, or of a freedman, and does not bring it out at the public proclamation of the major domus, the master of the house shall be put to death
Date: 1750 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Exodus 21:16
Hebrew Bible
14 But if a man willfully attacks his neighbor to kill him cunningly, you will take him even from my altar that he may die. 15 “Whoever strikes his father or his mother must surely be put to death. 16 “Whoever kidnaps someone and sells him, or is caught still holding him, must surely be put to death. 17 “Whoever treats his father or his mother disgracefully must surely be put to death. 18 “If men fight, and one strikes his neighbor with a stone or with his fist and he does not die, but must remain in bed,
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Notes and References
"... Numerous laws in the Hammurabi's law code (CoH) bear a striking resemblance to the laws in the Book of Covenant (BC) and the Deuteronomic Law (DL). This indicates relationships between them. These codes were written at different times and addressed to different societies. CoH was first written, followed by BC and then DL ... it intersects with CoH's because both evolved out of the same world that was faced with the same challenges. And the editors of BC adopted the standard form of expression that existed in the ancient Near East ..."
Ogunlana, Babatunde
Kidnapping: Relationships Between Hammurabi's Law Code 14, Exodus 21:16 and Deuteronomy 24:7
(pp. 1-7) University of Free State, South Africa, 2014
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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