Both Harper and Johns render the above differently. We subjoin Harper's translation: "If he be not able to meet his obligation, they shall leave him in that field with the cattle." Winckler, in a note, says that the community was responsible for the individual. The section is very obscure.

257

If a man hire a field-laborer, he shall pay eight GUR of grain per

year.

258

If a man hire an ox-driver, he shall pay him six GUR of grain a year.

259

If a man steal a water-wheel [a machine for irrigation], from a field, he shall pay the owner five shekels of silver.

260

If he steal a watering-bucket or a plow, he shall pay three shekels of silver.

261

If a man hire a shepherd to pasture cattle or sheep, he shall pay him eight GUR of grain a year.

If he lose an ox or sheep intrusted to him, he shall compensate the owner, ox for ox, sheep for sheep.

We have the following in Hebrew legislation:

If a man deliver unto his neighbor an ass, or an ox, or a sheep, or any beast to keep; and it die, or be hurt, or driven away, no man seeing it, the oath of the LORD shall be between them both, whether he hath not put his hand unto his neighbor's goods; and the owner thereof shall accept it, and he shall not make restitution. But if it be stolen from him, he shall make restitution unto the owner thereof. If it be torn in pieces, let him bring it for witness; he shall not make good that which was torn. And if a man borrow

aught of his neighbor, and it be hurt, or die, the owner thereof not being with it, he shall surely make restitution. If the owner thereof be with it, he shall not make it good; if it be an hired thing, it came for its hire. (Ex. 22: 10-15.)

264

If a shepherd to whose care cattle or sheep have been intrusted, who received his wages according to the stipulated pay, allow the number of cattle or sheep to decrease, or lessen the increase by birth, he shall make good the increase and produce according to the wording of his contract.

265

If a shepherd to whom cows and sheep have been given to pasture act fraudulently, or make false returns regarding the increase, or sell them for money, he shall be indicted, and shall render to their owner oxen and sheep tenfold for what he has stolen.

Hebrew legislation offers the following parallel :

If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he

...

If

shall pay five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. the theft be found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep; he shall pay double. (Ex. 22:1 and 4.)

In case the thief had nothing wherewith to pay, he might be made a slave. (See Gen. 44: 17.)

266

If a stroke of God [any accident] happen in a stable, or a lion kill it [any beast], the shepherd shall declare his innocence before God, and the owner of the stable shall suffer the loss.

267

If a shepherd overlook anything, and an accident take place in a stable, the shepherd shall make good in cattle or sheep the damage for which he is at fault, and give to the owner.

Nearly the same law is enforced among the Bedouins to this day. (See Ex. 22: 12, and remarks under 263 and 265.)

268

If a man hire an ox to thresh, the pay is twenty KA of grain.

269

If a man hire an ass to thresh, the pay is twenty KA of grain. Both Harper and Johns have ten KA for twenty.

270

If a man hire a young animal to thresh, the pay is ten KA of grain.

Lalu, rendered young animal in this section, may be a young calf or goat. Both Harper and Johns have one KA for ten.

271

If a man hire oxen, cart and driver, he shall pay one hundred and eighty KA of grain a day.

272

If a man hire a cart only, he shall pay forty KA of grain a day.

273

If a man hire a laborer from new year to the fifth month [April to August], he shall pay six SE of silver a day; from the sixth month to the end of the year [September to April] he shall pay five SE of silver a day.

The stele is so mutilated here that it is not possible to read the inscription with any degree of accuracy. We subjoin the section as given by

Johns:

(b) the hire of a brickmaker, five SE of silver,

(c) the hire of a tailor, five SE of silver,

(d) the hire of a stone-cutter,

(e) the hire of a

(f) the hire of a

(g) the hire of a

(h) the hire of a

(i) the hire of a

-SE of silver,

SE of silver,

SE of silver,

carpenter, four SE of silver,

four SE of silver,

(j) the hire of a builder,

SE of silver,

Here Johns enumerates five kinds of mechanics, or just one-half what was on the stele when first written. Harper gives four, and omits six. Enough, however, is given to show that skilled mechanics received between four and five SE per day. There were 180 SE in a shekel: thus five SE would be of a shekel. If a shekel was equal to about sixty-five cents in our money, it will be seen that wages were excessively low; and yet the intrinsic value of the money must be distinguished from its purchasing power. Thus, if the wages of a mechanic were not quite two cents a day, no doubt wheat and other products were sold at very low prices.

If a man hire a

,

275

its hire shall be three SE of silver a day.

Owing to the mutilated condition of the text, the exact kind of boat can only be a matter of conjecture.

276

If a man hire a row-boat, he shall pay two and a half SE of silver per day.

Here again the kind of boat is very uncertain. Both Scheil and Johns have "a fast ship"; Harper has "sail-boat." (See remarks under 240.)

277

If a man hire a boat of sixty GUR, he shall pay one-sixth shekel per day as its hire.

278

If a man buy a male slave or a female slave, and, before a month has elapsed, the slave be attacked by the bennu sickness, he shall bring back the slave to the seller, and the buyer shall get back the money he paid.

The word bennu has puzzled translators. Scheil suggests paralysis. Harper has "bennu fever."

279

If a man buy a male slave or a female slave, and another claim the same, the seller has to satisfy the claim.

280

If a man buy in a foreign country a male slave or a female slave, and he return to his own land, and the former owner of this male slave or female slave recognize the same, if the male slave or female

slave be a native of the country, he shall give them back without compensation in money.

Both Harper and Johns translate the last clause quite differently: "He shall grant them their freedom without money (price)."

281

If they be natives of another country, the buyer shall declare before God [in open court] the sum of money he paid for them, and the former owner of the male slave or female slave shall give to the merchant the money paid for them, and he [the former owner] shall recover his male or his female slave.

282

If a slave say to his master, "Thou art not my master," if his master shall prove him to be his slave, he may cut off his ear.