Hammurabi’s
justification:
When Anu the Sublime, King of the Anunaki,
and Bel, the lord of Heaven and earth, who decreed
the fate of the land, assigned to Marduk, the
over-ruling son of Ea, God of righteousness, dominion over earthly man, and
made him great among the Igigi, they called Babylon
by his illustrious name, made it great on earth, and founded an everlasting
kingdom in it, whose foundations are laid so solidly as those of heaven and
earth; then Anu and Bel
called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who
feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy
the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak; so
that I should rule over the black-headed people like Shamash, and enlighten the
land, to further the well-being of mankind.
Examples from the 282 codes:
Examples regarding crime:
3. If any one bring an accusation of any
crime before the elders, and does not prove what he has charged, he shall, if
it be a capital offense charged, be put to death.
5. If a judge try a case, reach a decision,
and present his judgment in writing; if later error shall appear in his
decision, and it be through his own fault, then he shall pay twelve times the
fine set by him in the case, and he shall be publicly removed from the judge's
bench, and never again shall he sit there to render judgment.
22. If any one is committing a robbery and is
caught, then he shall be put to death.
25. If fire break out in a house, and some
one who comes to put it out cast his eye upon the property of the owner of the
house, and take the property of the master of the house, he shall be thrown
into that self-same fire.
Examples regarding contracts and bankruptcy
45. If a man rent his field for tillage for a
fixed rental, and receive the rent of his field, but bad weather come and
destroy the harvest, the injury falls upon the tiller of the soil.
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.
Examples regarding marriage:
128. If a man take a
woman to wife, but have no intercourse with her, this woman is no wife to him.
129. If a man's wife is caught in bed with another
man, both shall be tied and thrown into the water, but the husband may pardon
his wife and the king his slaves.
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.
Examples regarding divorce and alimony:
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.
139. If there was no purchase price he shall
give her one mina of gold as a gift of release.
140. If he be a freed man he shall give her
one-third of a mina of gold.
141. If a man's wife, who lives in his house,
wishes to leave it, plunges into debt, tries to ruin her house, neglects her
husband, and is judicially convicted: if her husband offer
her release, she may go on her way, and he gives her nothing as a gift of
release. If her husband does not wish to release her, and if he take another wife, she shall remain as servant in her
husband's house.
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.
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.
Examples regarding assault:
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.
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.
Examples regarding wages and work:
273. If any one hire a day laborer, he shall
pay him from the New Year until the fifth month (April to August, when days are
long and the work hard) six gerahs in money per day;
from the sixth month to the end of the year he shall give him five gerahs per day.