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The livestock penalties in Exodus share Hammurabi's requirement for repayment beyond the value of stolen animals. The added amount distinguishes theft from accidental loss, requiring payment for wrongdoing as well as replacement of the animals.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Code of Hammurabi 1:275
Babylonian Legal Text
Ancient Near East
264 If a herdsman who has been entrusted with cattle or sheep to tend, and who has received his agreed wages and is satisfied, lets the number of cattle or sheep decrease or lessens the rate of increase by birth, he shall make good the increase or profit lost, according to the terms of his agreement. 265 If a herdsman entrusted with the care of cattle or sheep acts fraudulently, falsifies the natural increase, or sells the animals for money, he shall be convicted and shall repay the owner ten times his loss. 266 If an act of a god occurs in the stable and an animal dies, or a lion kills it, the herdsman shall declare his innocence before the god, and the owner bears the loss in the stable.
Exodus 22:1
Hebrew Bible
1 (21:37) “If a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he must pay back five head of cattle for the ox, and four sheep for the one sheep. 2 “If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there will be no blood guilt for him. 3 If the sun has risen on him, then there is blood guilt for him. A thief must surely make full restitution; if he has nothing, then he will be sold for his theft. 4 If the stolen item should in fact be found alive in his possession, whether it be an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he must pay back double.
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Notes and References
“... In addition to the evidence about sequence, many of the individual laws in CC and LH, in or outside the common sequence, agree in their internal details. Note, for example, that the debt-slavery laws describe work for X years with release in year X + 1 (21:2 // LH 117); the laws on slave-master relations have a slave declaring his relationship to his master with subsequent marking or marring of his ear to reflect his submission or rebellion (21:5–6 // LH 282); the laws about marrying a second wife describe it as “taking another” and require one to provide for the support of the first in three ways (by implication if not explicitly; 21:10–11 // LH 148–149); the child rebellion laws describe both verbal and physical attacks (21:15, 17 // LH 192–193, 195); the laws about striking a person set the injury in the context of a fight and require the injurer to care for the victim’s recovery (21:18–19 // LH 206); the miscarriage laws treat two cases, causing a miscarriage alone and then death to the woman (21:22–23 // LH 209–210); talion laws mention eye, tooth, and bone injuries and deal with such injuries to slaves (21:24–27 // LH 196–201); the goring ox laws consider ad hoc goring first, then habitual goring, then the goring of a slave (21:28–32 // LH 250–251); animal theft laws mention finding a stolen object in the thief’s possession, an inability to pay the penalty, and twofold or more restoration (21:37 + 22:2b–3 // LH 253–265); grazing laws presumably deal with two cases, causing animals to graze and releasing animals in a field (22:4 // LH 57–58); deposit laws require double compensation and declarations before the deity (22:6–8 // LH 120; cf. 126); and the animal death and injury laws speak, in order, about how the animal died, a declaration of innocence, and the owner’s acceptance of the loss (22:9–10 // LH 266). ...”
Wright, David P.
Inventing God's Law: How the Covenant Code of the Bible Used and Revised the Laws of Hammurabi
(p. 50) Oxford University Press, 2009
* 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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