Since people in that culture spent time on their flat roofs falling off a roof was a potential danger.
Mosaic law build a railing around your roof.
That way you will not be considered guilty of murder if someone falls from the roof.
But if he refused to build a railing and no one fell off that was his decision.
An example would be the case law that states when you build a new house you shall make a parapet for your roof.
There was no system of fines to the civil government under the mosaic law.
That certainly seems like a moral issue yet i don t see too many roof fences around.
People do not spend time on slanted roofs however or the roofs of grass huts so that law does not apply everywhere.
One common example is the command in the mosaic law to build a parapet or rail around the roof of your home.
Deuteronomy 22 8 nlt when you build a new house you must build a railing around the edge of its flat roof.
That way you will not be considered guilty of murder if someone falls from the roof.
This case law applies the principle enunciated by the sixth.
Therefore if he fell was he ultimately responsible for his injury or death and no crime had been committed.
Net bible emphasis mine the moral concept here is integrity.
That way you will not be considered guilty of murder if someone falls from the roof.
So what could have been the civil penalty for failing to build a railing.
Instead each property owner had a choice of a not building a rail and risking bloodguilt or b building a rail and avoiding bloodguilt.
He could place a barrier to access to the roof.
Someone who went onto a roof that did not have a rail did so of their own free will and chose to take the risk.
A wall built around an existing roof old house would not have integrity with the house and be weak.
When thou buildest a new house then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof that thou bring not blood upon thine house if any man fall from thence.
The only money collected by judges was for restitution to victims.
The critical point is this.
Often older buildings may comply with the code under which they were constructed.
The barrier onto the roof was the judicial equivalent of a railing.
Otherwise you might have bloodguilt on your house if anyone should fall from it deut.
There was no crime of failing to build a rail around a roof.
Tucked away in the middle of the mosaic law is of all things the following building code.
22 8 if you build a new house you must construct a guard rail around your roof to avoid being culpable in the event someone should fall from it.
That would suffice judicially.
Deuteronomy 22 8 nlt when you build a new house you must build a railing around the edge of its flat roof.