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Attached to this report are some laws. If a person curses his God or gods, he is guilty in relationship to that god. But a person who curses the name of Yahweh shall be under the death penalty. This is true for an Israelite and for a foreigner. Murder carries the death penalty (cf. Ex 21:12-14). Other kinds of injuries and losses are to be decided on the principle of an eye for an eye and a life for a life. This principle is called lex talionis. Scholars used to blush before this standard. But the study of Near Eastern law has reversed their concern. In some old law codes like Ur-nammu, personal injury carried the penalty of a fine. Injuries against the god or his king, however, had severer penalties. With the introduction of lex talionis in law codes such as Hammurabi’s the worth of persons was elevated. Injury to a person became a criminal offense. Furthermore, it needs to be emphasized that lex talionis was a guide for establishing equivalences in deciding cases. It was not carried out literally. On the other hand, adequate compensation for a loss was to be set by the court; on the other hand, the courts were not to require excessive compensation. In no case is one able to compensate for the talking of a human life.