Laws Concerning Assault and Property

(Exodus 21:12 - 22:15)

If one assaults a man and the man dies as a result, then the perpetrator should be executed.  If the assault was accidental and occurred by mischance, then I will establish a place of exile to which the perpetrator may be banished.  However, if a man kills his neighbor intentionally and with premeditation, he should be executed, even if he must be dragged from my altar. 

Anyone who strikes his father or mother should be executed. 

Anyone who abducts a man and holds him as a slave or sells him should be executed. 

Anyone who curses or speaks disrespectfully of his father or mother should be executed. 

If there is a quarrel and a man strikes another with a stone or with his fist so that he is laid up in bed, but does not die, and is eventually able to get up again and walk about with a staff, then the man who committed the assault will not be punished, save that he must pay the victim's medical expenses and restitution for work lost.  A master striking his male or female slave with a rod, causing his death will be punished for a crime, but if the victim recovers after a day or two, there will be no penalty, for the slave is his own property.

If, in the course of a brawl, a man accidentally strikes a pregnant woman, resulting in a miscarriage, but no other harm, then the perpetrator will be subject to damages, whatever the husband requires as determined by a judge.  But if the woman is injured further or dies, then the punishment must match the injury -- a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, a cut for a cut.

If a master puts out the eye of a slave, male or female, he should free the slave in compensation.  Also, if he knocks out a slave's tooth, then he should free him in compensation.

If a bull fatally gores a man or a woman, then the bull should be stoned to death and its meat left uneaten, but the owner of the bull will not be subject to punishment.  However, if the owner was well aware that the bull was habitually aggressive, neglected to pen or restrain it, and it killed someone, then not only the bull, but the owner should be put to death. However, the man’s life may be spared if some financial compensation is agreed upon. Whether the goring was of a son or daughter makes no difference.  However, if the bull fatally gores a male or female slave, then the owner must pay the master of the slave 30 shekels of silver, and the bull shall be stoned to death.

If a man opens or digs a well and neglects to cover it and an ox or a donkey falls into it and dies, then he must reimburse the owner for the value of the animal, although he may keep the carcass.

If one man's bull injures a bull belonging to another man so that it dies, the live bull will be sold and the two owners will divide the proceeds, as well as sharing the dead bull.  If the owner was well aware that the bull was habitually aggressive and neglected to pen or restrain it, then he must pay for the dead animal or replace it, although its carcass will be his. 

If a man steals an ox or sheep, kills it or sells it, he must reimburse the owner with five oxen for one ox stolen, four sheep for one sheep stolen.

If a thief is caught breaking and entering and is beaten and killed, the killer shall not be punished.  However, if this occurs during the daylight hours, then charges should be brought against the killer.  As for the thief, he must make restitution for what was taken, but if he lacks the financial resources to do so, then he will be sold into slavery to cover the cost of the goods stolen.  If stolen livestock be found in his possession alive, then, whether ox, sheep, or donkey, each must be restored to its owner along with an additional animal in compensation.

If a man allows or lets loose his livestock to wander into another man's field or vineyard and graze there, he must make restitution from the best of his own fields and vineyards, according to the assessed loss.

If someone starts a fire and it spreads to the brush, burning down grain stacks, standing crops, or even an entire field belonging to someone else, then he who started the fire must make good the losses. 

If a man has a friend safeguard for him some goods or property, and they are stolen, the thief, if caught, must pay double the amount of the goods stolen.  If the thief is not apprehended, then the man in whom the goods were entrusted must be brought before one of Jehovah's judges to swear that he did not steal them.

In all cases of disputed ownership, whether involving a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any livestock, an article of clothing, or any lost property whose ownership is contested, the parties may present their cases before a judge of Jehovah, and whomever the judge rules against, that party must pay the owner double the worth of the object.

If a man has his neighbor keep for him a donkey, an ox, or a sheep, or any livestock, and the animal dies, is injured, or strays away with no one seeing it, then the neighbor must swear an oath by Jehovah that he did not cause harm to the man's livestock.  The owner must accept the neighbor's oath and not take legal action against him.  However, if the animal was stolen from him, then the neighbor who kept the animal must make restitution to the owner.  On the other hand, if the animal was predated by wild beasts and the neighbor produces the carcass as evidence, then he is not obliged to make restitution.

If a man borrows an animal from a neighbor and that animal is injured or dies when the owner is not present, he will be liable to make restitution to the owner.  However, if the owner is present, he is not obligated to do so. And if the animal was hired for working, the rental fee is sufficient compensation.

Notes
 1.  Several legal principles are established by the laws set out here concerning murder and assault.  Manslaughter, killing someone unintentionally is a lesser crime than murder and demands a punishment not of death, but of exile.  This, however, includes accidental death, which they deal with more severely than we do.  (In modern law accidental death is punished only if negligence is proved.)  Kidnapping and enslavement is established as a capital crime.  Offenses against one's parents are severely punished: to assault or even curse a parent is punishable by death.  Generally, assault seems to be more of a civil than a criminal manner.  The assailant is not punished, save he must pay medical expenses and reimburse his victim for time lost, (after which everything is OK, so long as the victim can hobble about on a cane, crutch, staff, whatever.) 

2.  A significant principle is set out concerning pregnancy and the legal status of the fetus.  The killing of an unborn child is not defined as murder, but merely as destruction of private property, as one who causes a miscarriage is only required to make restitution to the father of the child (and not to the mother, who, of course, was merely the property of her husband).  Therefore, under biblical law, one may conclude that the fetus is not regarded as a person in the legal sense. ---  It should be mentioned, though, that since the Hebrew here is rather ambiguous, some translations have the mother giving birth prematurely rather than miscarrying.  But context favors the latter interpretation.  It seems unlikely that damages would be demanded merely over a premature birth.

3.  In this section we have the first appearance of the phrase "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."  It is the most obvious and rudimentary principle of justice.  It will be noted, though, that in regard to theft, as well as other matters, it seems as if "two eyes for an eye" is more the prevailing tenet.  The competing concept, "two black eyes don't make one white one," has not yet appeared.

4.  Laws governing the treatment of slaves seem contradictory.  You cannot kill your slave, but it is apparently all right to beat him up, since, if he consequently can't work, that's the master's loss.  (There is no concern for the harm done to the slave as a human being.)  However, if the master knocks out a tooth or eye, he has to free his slave.

4.  A modern principle of law, the distinction between house breaking (occurring during the day) and burglary (occurring at night), is hinted at here.  Illegal entry into an abode has always been regarded as more serious when that crime occurs at night, when the owner is apt to be asleep and unable to resist entry or defend himself.  As in modern law, the home owner (or, in this case, probably the tent owner) has a right to kill someone breaking in at night, but may not do so to a trespasser during the daylight hours.

5.  Livestock that commit crimes are subject to execution.  It is unclear whether this is merely the prudent destruction of a dangerous beast, or punishment for a moral failing on the part of the animal.  At any rate, it is clear that owners must be reasonably responsible for the actions of the livestock they own, a not insignificant concept.

6.  Offenders who are unable to pay fines for their wrongdoing are to be sold into slavery to cover their debt.  (Enslavement for debt has a long history and was common up to comparatively modern times.)  Here, enslavement is not the punishment for the crime, but a punishment for penury.  (Is it not the universal condition that the poor man has to pay dearly for his missteps while the rich man is nearly always able to buy his way out of trouble?)

7.  An oath sworn to Jehovah is here established as a conclusive statement of fact.  (To violate that oath would be against one of the Ten Commandments.)  Trust is the cornerstone upon which civilization is held together; placing absolute trust in a man's oath was as important to ancient society as honoring the contract is to our society.

8.  In regard to the laws about goring bulls, many translators (apparently, strictly city men) use the word ox.  “Ox” was originally used to refer to all male and female bovines; “oxen” would be synonymous with “cattle.”  Modern usage, however, restricts the use of “ox” to a mature, castrated male bovine used as a draught animal.  Steers, or, less commonly, bullocks, are castrated male cattle raised for beef.  Bulls, on the other hand, are uncastrated males used for breeding (or fighting) purposes.  Oxen, as we now term them, are fairly placid; it’s the bulls who are notoriously aggressive and do most of the bovine goring, as bullfighters will attest.

9.  Thirty shekels of silver would be about 12 ounces (maybe), in today's money, from $250 to $400, depending on the current market.  Of course, the reference is only to a weight of silver.  Currency, that is, coinage, had not been invented yet.  Consequently, money, when used in the text, is done so in a figurative sense.