THE LAWS OF THE BABYLONIANS. 



241 



points u])Oii which I am able to touch will be found, I think, 

 to be of interest both from the Biblical and other points of view. 



Simple restitution was very justly exacted in kind — goods 

 for goods, an ox for an ox, an ass for an ass, a slave for a slave. 

 For cheating, for the loss of another's goods by carelessness, for 

 theft, etc., the compensation varied from threefold to thirty fold. 

 Their system differed from ours in that they did not resort to 

 the punishment of imprisonment to any great extent ; the 

 punishment was either restitution with proportionate and ex- 

 ceedingly heavy damages, or death. 



Injury to the person, however, could not be made good. A 

 member of the body could not be replaced, so that the punish- 

 ment which seemed to the Babylonians, as to the Hebrews and 

 other nations of antiquity, to be just, was that of making the 

 evil-doer like the person upon whom he had inflicted the 

 injury. But it was not only eye for eye, tooth for tooth, limb 

 for limb, but also son for son, and slave for slave ; for a man's 

 son once departed this life, could never be restored to him ; a 

 substitute would not supply the loss, and the same, in a lesser 

 degree, could be said for his slave, who was not always one pur- 

 chased for money or corn, but born, or at least brought up, in 

 his house, and therefore knowing his master's ways, and the 

 special routine of his household, and probably also having a 

 corner in his heart. 



The following are the principal of the laws relating to 

 retaliation : — 



Sitmma aweliim in mar cavelim uhtahhit, in-su iihappadu. 



" If a man has destroyed the eye of the son of a man, they 

 shall destroy his eye." 



Summa ncrpaddu aiuelim istehir, nerpaddii-sn isehhirru. 



" If he has broken the limb of a man, they shall break his 

 limb." 



Summa in muskini vJitahhit, u In ncrpaddu muskini istehir, 

 istin mana kaspi isaqal. 



" If he has destroyed the eye of a poor man, or broken the 

 limb of a poor man, he shall pay 1 mana of silver." 



Summa in arad avjelim uhtahhit, u lit nerpaddu arad awelim 

 istehir, misil simi-su isaqal. 



" If he has destroyed the eye of the servant of a man, or 

 broken the limb of the servant of a man, he shall pay half his 

 price." 



Summa awelnvt sinni awelim mchri - su ittadi, sinna - su 

 inaddu. 



