Abstract

The comparison of certain provisions contained in the Torah with certain parallel norms of Hittite law, seems to highlight more correspondences and similarities than in other Near Eastern cultures geographically and chronologically closer to the Hebrew-Biblical world. The apparent tendency of Hittite and Israelite law to generally favour reparation of the harm inflicted through economic compensation brings the two regulations together and reinforces a better understanding of the biblical culture in particular, dispelling a centuries-old prejudice that erroneously identified ancient Israelite laws with the physical and violent retaliatory law of Talion. However, in some serious cases such as rebellion against divine authority in the biblical context and against royal authority in the Hittite context, as well as other crimes against decency and social and family integrity such as incest, bestiality, sexual assault and adultery, in both Hittite and biblical-Jewish law, the punishment was usually capital execution.