The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia

by Theophilus G. Pinches

22. If a man has exercised brigandage, and has been taken, that man shall be killed.

23. If the brigand has not been captured, the man who has been robbed shall take the thing which he has lost before God, and the city and the authorities within whose territory and boundaries the brigandage has been exercised shall make up to him what he has lost.

24. If (it be a question of) a life, the city and authorities shall pay one mana of silver to his people.

25. If the house of a man has been set on fire,[181] and a man who went to extinguish it has raised his eyes to the property of the owner of the house, and taken the property of the owner of the house, that man shall be thrown into that same fire.

26. If an army-leader or a soldier, who has been commanded to go his way on a royal expedition, does not go, and has hired a mercenary, and his substitute is taken, that army-leader or soldier shall be killed, he who changed with him shall take his house.

27. If an army-leader or a soldier, who by the king's misfortune is kept prisoner, afterwards they have given his field and plantation to another, and he has carried on its administration; if (the original owner) then return and reach his city, they shall return to him his field and plantation, and he himself shall carry on its administration.

28. If the son of an army-leader or a soldier, who is kept prisoner by the king's misfortune, is able to carry on the administration, they shall give to him the field and plantation, and he shall carry on the administration for his father.

29. If his son is young, and is unable to carry on the administration for his father, the third part of the field and plantation shall be given to his mother, and his mother shall bring him up.

30. If an army-leader or a soldier neglect his field, his plantation, and his house on account of the burden, and leave it waste, (and) another after him has taken his field, his plantation, and his house, and has carried on its administration for three years, if he return and wish to cultivate his field, his plantation, and his house, it shall not be given to him—he who took and has carried on its administration shall continue to administer.

31. If for one year (only) he has let (them) lie waste, and has returned, his field, his plantation, and his house they shall give to him, and he shall carry on his administration himself.