Middle Assyrian Laws

Historical source page 14

An Assyrian Law Code 13 1 (Badly preserved. Treats of the case of a woman — the wife of a man or a man's daughter — entering a temple apparently to make restitution for something that she has stolen. The part dealing with the punishment is too mutilated to be made out. 20 ) 2 If a woman, be she the wife of a man or a man's daughter, does not confess 21 the theft or under pressure 22 makes restitution, that woman bears her sin 23 ; on her husband, her sons and her daugh- ters she has no claim. 24 3 If a man is sick or has died (and) his wife steals something from his house, whether she gives it to a man or to a woman, or to anyone whomsoever, the wife of the man as well as the receivers shall be put to death ; or if the wife whose husband is living steals 20 The law is the first of a group dealing with theft committed by a woman, who as wife or daughter is a man's property. The Hammurabi Code deals with theft from a temple — and to which it adds 'or from a palace' — in§§ 6-8. It decrees that both the thief and receiver of the stolen property, are put to death, but the severity of the old law is modified by the exception (§8) that in case the stolen object is an ox or ass or sheep or pig, the thief if a freeman is to restore thirty fold the value of what he took, and if he be a plebeian ten-fold; and only in case he have not the wherewithal to make restitution is he put to death. The Hammurabi Code has no special laws with regard to women who steal, from which we may conclude that in §§ 6-8 the conven- tional phrase beginning 'if a man,' etc., applies to women as well. 21 Text has ta-tak-ti-bi =taktibi with a redundant initial syllable, for which there are several examples, for example, ta-at-ta-al-pa-at (col. 1, 83) =talpat; ta-(at)-ta-a$-bat = ta§bat (Col. 3, 52). 22 Mi-kiAt pi-e, the ideographic writing for which Ka-ta Sub-ba (II Rawlin- son 39, 13a-b) shows that it is to be rendered 'falling of the mouth', in contrast to Ka-ta M=9i-it pi-i (II Rawlinson 12a-b), 'utterance'. 'Falling of the mouth' cannot mean 'silently', for which we have 'closing of the mouth' ( = si-kur pi-i, ib. lib). I take the phrase to mean that the stolen property is restored under pressure. 23 1, e., she is guilty, a-ra-an-sd ta-na-as-si, is a parallel to the Hebrew phrase in the Priestly Code nasa \jM. 'bearing sin', e. g., Lev. 19. 17; 22. 9; 24. 15; Num. 9. 13, etc., in the sense of being guilty. 24 la-a i-kar-ri-i-bi, 'she shall not approach', i. e., she has no claim on any members of her family. Cf. § 26, the husband 'shall not approach' the house of his father-in-law, i. e., has no claim on it, if at the time of divorce from his wife, she is living in her father's house.