The Code of Hammurabi

THE CODE OF HAMMURABI

• Language: Akkadian

• Province: Babylon

• Date: 1753 BC

https://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/1750-the-code-of-hammurabi-johns-translation 

THE RELIEF

The image above the Code itself shows Shamash, the Annunaki Sun god, seated in his throne with flares of the Sun coming off his shoulders, handing a stylus to Hammurabi. This relief shows Shamash’s authority by sitting on the throne and grants Hammurabi authority to write this code by handing him a stylus.

THE PROLOGUE

The Code begins by explaining Babylon’s origins: Anu and Bel gave Marduk the right to rule over men, and so they made the greatest city for him, Babylon. They then appointed Hammurabi as the king to establish justice, protect the poor, weak, and oppressed from those who would take advantage of them, and to rule over the black-headed people. Hammurabi’s kingship is necessarily understood only after Marduk’s own appointment to be king of the gods (as told in the Enuma Elish) is established. Just as Marduk was chosen and Babylon chosen for him, so Hammurabi too is chosen to be king in Babylon. As king, Hammurabi’s job is to establish justice, particularly by protecting the most vulnerable of his “black-headed” (Mesopotamian) people. The Hebrew Bible, on the other hand, opens up with a creation narrative of all people in a garden. Only after humans continue to sin does God choose one man to become a chosen nation in response to corporate human evil. In the Torah, there are stipulations to keep a king from becoming too powerful or wealthy to protect them from the pride exemplified in this document. Furthermore, it is not until much later in their history that Israel elects a king for themselves as the Prophet Samuel reluctantly allows it.

Hammurabi describes himself as a shepherd who made Babylon great and came before Marduk at Esagil; he made the ancient lands Babylon had conquered - Ur, Sumer, Akkad, Nineveh - prosper, and established right worship of many gods. “Then-” Just as in the Bible, shepherds are connected to rulers: Joseph, Judah, and David, for example. However, none of the righteous kings boast about the lands they conquer (although the Hebrew Bible does triumphantly report their exploits). In contrast to this document, much of the criteria for comparing kings in 1 and 2 Kings is how idolatrous kings were: if they took down the high places or had many idols. Finally, whereas this prologue ends with a conjunction that makes all the following laws dependent on Hammurabi’s divine appointment, God gives Israel their law before they even enter their own land and frequently sends his prophets to reprimand the kings for not living up to the law. In Deuteronomy, in fact, Kings are supposed to copy down the Torah that God gave them instead of establishing their own supposedly inspired laws (although no such report is given).

THE CODE

1 & 2 detail laws for accusations of casting death spells.

3. “If a man has borne false witness in a trial, or has not established the statement that he has made, if that case be a capital trial, that man shall be put to death.
4. “If he has borne false witness in a civil law case, he shall pay the damages in that suit”. As in the Decalogue, bearing false witness is prohibited and, just as in Deuteronomy 19:16-21, a false witness receives the punishment appropriate to the crime they accuse another of.

6 & 7 provide laws for things stolen.

8. “If a patrician has stolen ox, sheep, ass, pig, or ship, whether from a temple, or a house, he shall pay thirtyfold. If he be a plebeian, he shall return tenfold. If the thief cannot pay, he shall be put to death”. As in the Decalogue, stealing is prohibited here as well. According to Exodus 22:1-5, in contrast, the thief is charged for theft based not on their own class but on the type of animal they stole and if they murdered it: 5 oxen: 1 killed/sold ox; 4 sheep: 1 killed/sold sheep; 2x whatever is stolen if it is still alive. However, if the thief cannot pay in the Hebrew Bible, he is not killed but must sell himself as a slave.

9-12 are laws about accusations of stealing or not having receipts from a purchase.

13. “If a man has not his witnesses at hand, the judge shall set him a fixed time not exceeding six months, and if within six months he has not produced his witnesses, the man has lied; he shall bear the penalty of the suit”. The Code of Hammurabi assumes innocence until proven guilty, even to the point of condemning someone who makes an accusation and cannot find any witnesses.

14-20 address kidnapping and the punishments and procedures for those who try to steal, catch, or return slaves.

21-25 deal with house and highway robbers.

26-41 detail the rights, duties, and privileges of levy-masters, warrant-officers, and governors.

42-52 are laws concerning renting and leasing land and not being able or willing to produce crops on it.

53-58 concern neglect of dikes, runnels, water, and animals so that it destroys neighboring crops.

59-65 are other laws concerning uncautious farming at the expense of one's neighbor.

66-100 are no longer extent.

100-107 are all laws protecting and obligating merchants to be responsible.

108-111 are laws about taverns and inns.

112-116 work with money entrusted with another person and what happens if that person dies while imprisoned.

117. “If any one fail to meet a claim for debt, and sell himself, his wife, his son, and daughter for money or give them away to forced labor: they shall work for three years in the house of the man who bought them, or the proprietor, and in the fourth year they shall be set free”. According to Exodus 21:2-11, a Hebrew slave should be freed after six years of work, leaving with whatever family went into slavery with him unless he got married or had children during his time serving as a slave; in that case, he may decide to serve his master as a slave for the rest of his time. Deuteronomy 15:12-14 adds that the slave-owner must give him generously from his flocks and produce, and in Leviticus 25:47-54 it is determined that foreign slaves may have their freedom bought or be sold according to how much time there is until the year of Jubilee.

118 & 119 further explicate laws around release from slavery.

120-126 concern items that people hand over to others for safekeeping and the various casualties or accusations that come with that situation.

127-128 are various laws concerning relationships.

129. “If a man's wife be surprised (in flagrante delicto) with another man, both shall be tied and thrown into the water, but the husband may pardon his wife and the king his slaves”. Although the initial death-punishment for adultery is the same as that found in Deuteronomy 22:22, husbands and kings may not pardon in the Hebrew Bible.

130. “If a man violate the wife (betrothed or child-wife) of another man, who has never known a man, and still lives in her father’s house, and sleep with her and be surprised, this man shall be put to death, but the wife is blameless”. In Deuteronomy 22:23-27, a betrothed virgin would be put to death if she didn’t alert others but simply allowed it to happen, but would be spared if she either did alert others or wasn’t able to, the same as here.

131. “If a man bring a charge against one’s wife, but she is not surprised with another man, she must take an oath and then may return to her house”. Numbers 5 outlines an entire process for if a husband has an accusation of adultery against his own wife without any evidence. The ordeal involves the woman taking an oath before drinking water in which that written oath was dipped. The water will make her unable to bear children. Otherwise, she will be unaffected and the husband assured that she is pure.

132. “If the ‘finger is pointed’ at a man's wife about another man, but she is not caught sleeping with the other man, she shall jump into the river for her husband”. Although there is an ordeal for a husband being suspicious of his husband without evidence in the Hebrew Bible, such a perilous ordeal is by no means ordained. Here, in Hammurabi, the presumption is that if the lady is not carried away and destroyed or drowned in the river, the gods have called her righteous. In the ordeal outlined in Numbers 5, the accused wife is safe unless the bitter water of the oath happens to contradict what she really did.

133-136 all protect women when their husband runs away or is captured or killed in war.

137. “If a man wish to separate from a woman who has borne him children, or from his wife who has borne him children: then he shall give that wife her dowry, and a part of the usufruct of field, garden, and property, so that she can rear her children. When she has brought up her children, a portion of all that is given to the children, equal as that of one son, shall be given to her. She may then marry the man of her heart.
138. “If a man wishes to separate from his wife who has borne him no children, he shall give her the amount of her purchase money and the dowry which she brought from her father's house, and let her go”. Deuteronomy 24:1-4 allows for a man to divorce his wife if he finds her “displeasing”. While there is a famous Jewish debate as to the strictness with which “displeasing” ought to be understood (the man just doesn’t have romantic interest in her versus has found her being unfaithful; cf. Matthew 5:31-32; 19:3-9), God reprimands whimsical divorce in Malachi 2:16.

139-140 are further laws detailing what the dowry might look like for a man divorcing his wife.

142. “If a woman quarrel with her husband, and say: ‘You are not congenial to me,’ the reasons for her prejudice must be presented. If she is guiltless, and there is no fault on her part, but he leaves and neglects her, then no guilt attaches to this woman, she shall take her dowry and go back to her father's house.
143. “If she is not innocent, but leaves her husband, and ruins her house, neglecting her husband, this woman shall be cast into the water”. Wives are allowed to take their dowries and divorce their husbands so long as their husband has neglected them, unlike in the Hebrew Bible; however, a woman who attempts to present a case for a divorce and is unsuccessful will be thrown into a river to die.

144. “If a man take a wife and this woman give her husband a maid-servant, and she bear him children, but this man wishes to take another wife, this shall not be permitted to him; he shall not take a second wife.
145. “If a man take a wife, and she bear him no children, and he intend to take another wife: if he take this second wife, and bring her into the house, this second wife shall not be allowed equality with his wife.
146. “If a man take a wife and she give this man a maid-servant as wife and she bear him children, and then this maid assume equality with the wife: because she has borne him children her master shall not sell her for money, but he may keep her as a slave, reckoning her among the maid-servants.
147. “If she have not borne him children, then her mistress may sell her for money”. While in many ways protecting maidservants who bear children for their masters (which, as is shown with Bilhah and Ziphah, would not have been too uncommon), this law also creates a necessary hierarchy of wives based on their natural yet uncontrollable ability to bear children. While the Torah doesn’t have nearly as much legislation on the issue, Deuteronomy  21:15-17 mandates that a husband treat his firstborn son the same no matter if a less favored wife bear him the son.

148-153 are more laws and protections for polygamous relationships.

154. “If a man be guilty of incest with his daughter, he shall be driven from the place (exiled).
155. “If a man betroth a girl to his son, and his son have intercourse with her, but he (the father) afterward defile her, and be surprised, then he shall be bound and cast into the water (drowned).
156. “If a man betroth a girl to his son, but his son has not known her, and if then he defile her, he shall pay her half a gold mina, and compensate her for all that she brought out of her father's house. She may marry the man of her heart”.
157. “If any one be guilty of incest with his mother after his father, both shall be burned”. While the Code of Hammurabi prohibits father-daughter incest, Leviticus 18 is much more exhaustive in its prohibition. Both of the law codes have exile as the punishment for the criminal offense, but Leviticus 20 adds that some incestuous circumstances will further result in God making the criminals infertile.

158-164 deal with dowries and repayments of dowries for dead wives.

165. “If a man give to one of his sons whom he prefers a field, garden, and house, and a deed therefor: if later the father die, and the brothers divide the estate, then they shall first give him the present of his father, and he shall accept it; and the rest of the paternal property shall they divide”. Similar to previous laws, this also contrasts with Deuteronomy  21:15-17, which mandates that a husband treat his firstborn son the same no matter if a less favored wife bear him the son.

166-169 are laws about if a father wants to disinherit or have one of his sons sent out of his house.

170. “If his wife bear sons to a man, or his maid-servant have borne sons, and the father while still living says to the children whom his maid-servant has borne: ‘My sons,’ and he count them with the sons of his wife; if then the father die, then the sons of the wife and of the maid-servant shall divide the paternal property in common. The son of the wife is to partition and choose’. Again, Deuteronomy 21:15-17 does not leave it up to the father to choose which children receive more or less inheritance based on his favor.

171-174 elaborate on other instances where a husband has sons with a maid-servant but does not count them among his sons.

175-178 are more laws about remarriage, special marriage situations

179-184 concern gifts from fathers to their daughters, especially for daughters devoted as temple maidens or virgins by their father.

185-194 deal with cases when adopted children can or cannot return to their original parents and punishes them severely for speaking poorly of their adopted parents.

195. “If a son strike his father, his hands shall be hewn off”. While this law has behind it the logic of punishing a child who strikes his father so that he never does it again, Exodus 21:15 is more severe in mandating death for a child who strikes either their father or mother, thus elevating parents to a higher role and yet equally honoring father and mother.

196. “If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. [An eye for an eye]
197. “If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be broken.
198. “If he put out the eye of a freed man, or break the bone of a freed man, he shall pay one gold mina.
199. “If he put out the eye of a man's slave, or break the bone of a man's slave, he shall pay one-half of its value.
200. “If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out. [A tooth for a tooth]
201. “If he knock out the teeth of a freed man, he shall pay one-third of a gold mina.
202. “If any one strike the body of a man higher in rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public.
203. “If a free-born man strike the body of another free-born man or equal rank, he shall pay one gold mina. [1 gold mina = 60 sheckels]
204. “If a freed man strike the body of another freed man, he shall pay ten shekels in money.
205. “If the slave of a freed man strike the body of a freed man, his ear shall be cut off”. As in Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:18-20, and Deuteronomy 19:21, any fight that leads to someone being injured results in a punishment of equal injury on the inflicter of the original injury. However, assumed in these commands is that the injurer can pay a set [high] price according to whatever body part was injured. Whereas the Code of Hammurabi has different prices for harm depending on the ranking of the person, the Torah has a set price for all people in all quarrels.

206. “If during a quarrel one man strike another and wound him, then he shall swear, "I did not injure him wittingly," and pay the physicians.
207. “If the man die of his wound, he shall swear similarly, and if he (the deceased) was a free-born man, he shall pay half a mina in money”. Exodus 21:18-19 has it so that in a similar situation, the one who hurts the other person has to pay for the work he missed out on.

209. “If a man strike a free-born woman so that she lose her unborn child, he shall pay ten shekels for her loss.
210. “If the woman die, his daughter shall be put to death.
211. “If a woman of the free class lose her child by a blow, he shall pay five shekels in money.
212. “If this woman die, he shall pay half a mina.
213. “If he strike the maid-servant of a man, and she lose her child, he shall pay two shekels in money.
214. “If this maid-servant die, he shall pay one-third of a mina”. Here, there are some protections for a pregnant woman who is struck by a man and different fines are given based on the woman’s status. Similar cases are dealt with in Exodus 21:22-25; only there it specifies that the husband of the pregnant woman determines the price the man pays and, if there is any injury, the principle of lex talionis is mandated.

215-227 are all laws concerning physicians, veterinarians, and barbers: how much each of their procedures should cost and how much they should be fined for accidentally harming their subjects.

229. “If a builder build a house for some one, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then that builder shall be put to death”. Deuteronomy 22:8, the law that is closest to this law here, deals only with if someone specifically does not construct a parapet for their roof. While it only says that it is mandatory to do so, it says this so that the builder is not guilty of bloodshed, implying murder if someone falls off.

230-233 elaborate on the case law where the builder does not construct a sturdy enough house.

237-240 contain laws around constructing ships, borrowing ships, and wrecking others’ ships.

241-249 detail the prices for hiring oxen and expenses (as well as who would pay) in special cases of injury to the oxen.

250. “If while an ox is passing on the street (market) some one push it, and kill it, the owner can set up no claim in the suit (against the hirer).
251. “If an ox be a goring ox, and it shown that he is a gorer, and he do not bind his horns, or fasten the ox up, and the ox gore a free-born man and kill him, the owner shall pay one-half a mina in money.
252. “If he kill a man's slave, he shall pay one-third of a mina”. In contrast to the excused street ox who gores a man, Exodus 21:28-36 has that ox put to death and eaten and, instead of the owner of an ox who knows it gores people paying half a mina, he is stoned with the ox. If the ox killed a slave, the owner pays 30 shekels.

253-273 elaborate on even more laws for prices for hiring field workers, stealing agricultural tools, and not taking care of borrowed animals.

274-277 set prices for hiring specialized merchants and workers.

278-282 are all laws about the prices for slaves and a few special situations where they can be freed or returned for money.

THE EPILOGUE

Just as in the introduction, Hammurabi once again speaks of himself as the king elect by the gods who has conquered many lands and been placed in authority to protect widows and orphans. He then invokes Shamash and Marduk, praying that the monument is not destroyed but that it stand for the oppressed to be able to read it and know how they are to be treated. He then prays that future rulers will observe his laws and not alter them. Similar to the Hebrew Bible, the king is supposed to protect the more vulnerable.

Hammurabi then calls himself king of righteousness and says the laws had been given to him by Shamash. He prays that Shamash lengthen the life of any king who lives by his commands. This is followed by a significantly more lengthy curse pronounced on anyone who defaces or alters the law, invoking multiple Annunaki gods. The blessing for those who live by the law and curse for those who change it, although significantly lengthier here, are also found at the end of the Torah.