§ 19. If he shall detain that slave in his house and afterward the slave is found, that man shall be put to death.
§ 20. If the slave escapes from the hand of his captor, that man shall declare it on oath to the owner of the slave and shall be innocent.
These laws are analogous to Exod. 21:16 and Deut. 23:15. The former inflicts the death penalty for stealing a man and selling him, and the latter prohibits one in whose house a fugitive slave has taken refuge from returning the slave to his master. Slavery was not in Israel such a firmly established institution as in Babylonia. (See Exod. 21:2-6; Deut. 15:12-18; Lev. 25:25-46.)
Housebreaking and Brigandage
§ 21. If a man breaks into a house, before that breach he shall be put to death and thrown into it.
§ 22. If a man practices brigandage and is caught, that man shall be put to death.
§ 23. If the robber is not caught, the man who is robbed shall declare his loss, whatever it is, in the presence of a god, and the city and governor in whose territory and jurisdiction the robbery was committed shall compensate him for whatever was lost.
§ 24. If it is a life, that city and governor shall pay to his relatives 1 mana of silver.[460]
Hebrew law presents an analogy to the last of these sections in Deut. 21:1-9, though in Israel no compensation was offered to the heirs of the man who was slain, but a sacrifice was performed by the elders of the nearest city, to purge it of innocent blood.
Stealing at a Fire