Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/160

 By this equal distribution of the landed property of the nation, the law furnished the strongest barrier against pauperism. Still, in the best regulated society, inequality of conditions must arise. Special enactments, therefore, were added to protect the poor from oppression, and to soften the hardships of their lot. The laborer, who depended on his daily wages, was to be paid promptly: "The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning." Certain property was sacred: "No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge; for he taketh a man's life."

If, by a series of calamities, a man had become impoverished, his more prosperous neighbors were enjoined to lend him money; and although this was not a statute, to the violation of which was annexed a legal penalty, it was a rule which could not be disregarded without a degree of infamy, such as would attach to an Arab chief, who should violate the laws of hospitality. Thus did the Hebrew law enjoin a mutual helpfulness that is the best guard against inequalities of condition.

The humanity of the Hebrew code is further seen in its mitigation of slavery. This was a legal institution of Egypt, out of which they had just come. They themselves had been slaves. Their ancestors, the patriarchs, had held slaves. Abraham had over three hundred servants born in his house. The relation of master and slave they still recognized. But by how many limitations was this state of bondage alleviated! No man could be subjected to slavery by violence. Man-stealing was punished with death. The more common causes of servitude were theft or debt. A robber might be sold to expiate his crime; or a man overwhelmed with debt, might sell himself to