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The Code of Hammurabi holds an ox owner liable if a known goring ox kills someone, requiring a monetary fine. Exodus 21 addresses the same scenario but imposes the death penalty on the owner of a known dangerous ox.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Code of Hammurabi
Babylonian Legal Text
Ancient Near East
249 If anyone hires an ox, and a god strikes it and it dies, the man who hired it shall swear an oath by the god and be held blameless. 250 If an ox is passing along the street and someone pushes it and kills it, the owner can bring no claim in the case. 251 If an ox is a known gorer, and it has been shown that it gores, and the owner does not blunt its horns or tie up the ox, and the ox gores a free-born man and kills him, the owner shall pay half a mina of silver. 252 If it kills a man's slave, he shall pay one-third of a mina. 253 If anyone agrees with another to tend his field, receives seed from him, is entrusted with a yoke of oxen, and is bound to cultivate the field: if he steals the grain or the plants and takes them for himself, his hands shall be cut off.
Exodus 21:28
Hebrew Bible
27 If he knocks out the tooth of his male servant or his female servant, he will let the servant go free as compensation for the tooth. 28 “If an ox gores a man or a woman so that either dies, then the ox must surely be stoned and its flesh must not be eaten, but the owner of the ox will be acquitted. 29 But if the ox had the habit of goring, and its owner was warned but he did not take the necessary precautions, and then it killed a man or a woman, the ox must be stoned and the man must be put to death. 30 If a ransom is set for him, then he must pay the redemption for his life according to whatever amount was set for him. 31 If the ox gores a son or a daughter, the owner will be dealt with according to this rule. 32 If the ox gores a male servant or a female servant, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver, and the ox must be stoned. 33 “If a man opens a pit or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it and an ox or a donkey falls into it,
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Notes and References
“... Verses 28-32 address the problem of an ox that gores others (Laws of Eshnunna 53; Code of Hammurabi 250–51; compare Sumerian Laws 10). The responsibility for the ox’s behavior belongs ultimately to the owner (verse 29). This section presupposes a patriarchal hierarchy, with free men at the top, women in the middle, and slaves and animals (“living property”) at the bottom ...”
* 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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