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

by Theophilus G. Pinches

52. If the planter has not caused wheat or sesame to be in the field, it does not annul his contract.

53. If a man has neglected to stren[gth]en his [dyke], and has not streng[thened his] dyke, [and] a breach has o[pened] in [his] dyke, and water has inundated the enclosure, the man in whose dyke the breach has been opened shall make good the wheat which it has destroyed.

54. If the wheat does not suffice to make good (the damage), they shall sell that (man) and his goods for silver, and the people[191] of the enclosure, whose wheat the water carried away, shall share together.

55. If a man has opened his irrigation-channel to water, (and) has been negligent, and the water has flooded the field of his neighbour, he shall measure (to him) wheat like[192] (that of) his neighbour.

56. If a man has opened the water, and the water flood the work of the field of his neighbour, he shall measure (to him) 10 gur of wheat for each 10 gan.

57. If a shepherd has not agreed with the owner of a field for grass to pasture his sheep, and without the owner of the field has pastured sheep (in) the field, the owner shall reap his fields; the [pg 497] shepherd who, without the owner of the field, pastured sheep (in) the field, shall pay to the owner of the field 20 gur of wheat for every 10 gan besides.

58. If, after the sheep have left the enclosure, (and) the whole flock has passed through the gate, the shepherd place the sheep (again) in the field, and cause the sheep to pasture (in) the field, the shepherd shall keep the field (where) he has pastured them, and shall measure to the owner of the field, at harvest-time, 60 gur of wheat for every 10 gan.

59. If a man, without (the permission of) the owner of a plantation, has cut down a tree in the plantation of a man, he shall pay half a mana of silver.

60. If a man has given a field to a gardener to plant as a plantation, (and) the gardener has planted the plantation, he shall tend the plantation for four years. In the fifth year the owner of the plantation and the gardener shall share equally; (thereafter) the owner of the plantation shall apportion and take his share.

61. If a gardener has not completed the plantation of a field, and has left an uncultivated place, they shall set for him the uncultivated place in his share.