Texts in Conversation
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 any one hire an ox, and God strike it that it die, the man who hired it shall swear by God and be considered guiltless 250 If while an ox is passing on the street (market) some one push it, and kill it, the owner can set up no claim in the suit (against the hirer) 251 If an ox be a goring ox, and it shown that he is a gorer, and he do not bind his horns, or fasten the ox up, and the ox gore a free-born man and kill him, the owner shall pay one-half a mina in money 252 If he kill a man's slave, he shall pay one-third of a mina 253 If any one agree with another to tend his field, give him seed, entrust a yoke of oxen to him, and bind him to cultivate the field, if he steal the corn or plants, and take them for himself, his hands shall be hewn off
Date: 1750 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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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