Texts in Conversation
Exodus 22 follows an established legal tradition from the Code of Hammurabi. Both describe everyday cases where property is left in someone else’s care, disputes arise over loss or denial, oaths are required, and repayment is enforced.
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Code of Hammurabi
Babylonian Legal Text
Ancient Near East
119 If any one fail to meet a claim for debt, and he sell the maid servant who has borne him children, for money, the money which the merchant has paid shall be repaid to him by the owner of the slave and she shall be freed 120 If any one store corn for safe keeping in another person's house, and any harm happen to the corn in storage, or if the owner of the house open the granary and take some of the corn, or if especially he deny that the corn was stored in his house: then the owner of the corn shall claim his corn before God (on oath), and the owner of the house shall pay its owner for all of the corn that he took 121 If any one store corn in another man's house he shall pay him storage at the rate of one gur for every five ka of corn per year 122 If any one give another silver, gold, or anything else to keep, he shall show everything to some witness, draw up a contract, and then hand it over for safe keeping 123 If he turn it over for safe keeping without witness or contract, and if he to whom it was given deny it, then he has no legitimate claim 124 If any one deliver silver, gold, or anything else to another for safe keeping, before a witness, but he deny it, he shall be brought before a judge, and all that he has denied he shall pay in full
Date: 1750 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Exodus 22:6
Hebrew Bible
6 “If a fire breaks out and spreads to thorn bushes, so that stacked grain or standing grain or the whole field is consumed, the one who started the fire must surely make restitution. 7 “If a man gives his neighbor money or articles for safekeeping and it is stolen from the man’s house, if the thief is caught, he must repay double. 8 If the thief is not caught, then the owner of the house will be brought before the judges to see whether he has laid his hand on his neighbor’s goods. 9 In all cases of illegal possessions, whether for an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any kind of lost item, about which someone says ‘This belongs to me,’ the matter of the two of them will come before the judges, and the one whom the judges declare guilty must repay double to his neighbor. 10 If a man gives his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep, and it dies or is injured or is carried away without anyone seeing it, 11 then there will be an oath to the Lord between the two of them, that he has not laid his hand on his neighbor’s goods, and its owner will accept this, and he will not have to pay. 12 But if it was stolen from him, he will pay its owner.
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Notes and References
"... The deposit laws of Exodus 22:6–8 correspond thematically to LH 264–266 of the sequential template of Hammurabi’s laws ... LH 264–265 and 120–126 have more in common that just the idiom of custodianship, noted previously. The shepherd is phenomenologically like the house owner who guards another person’s property. Both sets of laws also speak about the shepherd’s or custodian’s misappropriation of or malfeasance toward the property. Both sets require multifold payment (LH 265 and 120, 124). And both sets use the verb nakārum to describe a context of deceit (LH 265 D-stem “to alter”; LH 120 and 124 G-stem “to deny”). One can also add the declaration “before the god”, found in LH 266, which follows LH 264–265, and the declarations “before the god” required in LH 120 and 126. LH 266 presumes a type of animal bailment like LH 264–265. Such declarations are fitting in cases where there is a dispute about the theft of property of whatever type. The similarities between CC’s and Hammurabi’s deposit laws are clear ..."
Wright, David P.
Inventing God's Law: How the Covenant Code of the Bible Used and Revised the Laws of Hammurabi
(pp. 243-245) 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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