Texts in Conversation
The roof barrier in Deuteronomy applies the concern for safe construction found in Hammurabi's building laws. Requiring prevention before a fall makes protecting visitors part of a homeowner's duty, rather than waiting for injury to bring punishment.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Code of Hammurabi 1:239
Babylonian Legal Text
Ancient Near East
226 If a barber, without his master's knowledge, cuts the mark of a slave on a slave who is not for sale, the barber's hands shall be cut off. 227 If anyone deceives a barber into marking a slave not for sale with a slave's mark, he shall be put to death and buried in his house. The barber shall swear, "I did not mark him knowingly," and shall go free. 228 If a builder builds a house for someone and completes it, the owner shall pay him a fee of two shekels of silver for each sar of surface. 229 If a builder builds a house for someone and does not build it properly, and the house he built collapses and kills its owner, the builder shall be put to death.
Deuteronomy 22:8
Hebrew Bible
5 A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor should a man dress up in women’s clothing, for anyone who does this is offensive to the Lord your God. 6 If you happen to notice a bird’s nest along the road, whether in a tree or on the ground, and there are chicks or eggs with the mother bird sitting on them, you must not take away a mother that is with her young. 7 You must be sure to let the mother go, but you may take the young for yourself. Do this so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life. 8 If you build a new house, you must construct a guardrail around your roof to avoid being culpable in the event someone should fall from it.
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Notes and References
“... 22:8. parapet on house. Since roofs were considered living space (see 2 Sam 11:2; 2 Kings 4:10), a parapet would have been an appropriate safety measure. This law deals with the liability of a homeowner for injury to a visitor in the case of negligent building practices. *Hammurabi’s code (laws 229-33) cautions builders against doing a substandard or unsafe job that could lead to injury or death. Penalties ranged from fines to capital punishment. ...”
Walton, John H.
The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
(p. 194) InterVarsity Press, 2000
* 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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