![]() If a slave says to his master: “You are not my master,” if they convict him his master shall cut off his ear. If a barber, without the knowledge of his master, cut the sign of a slave on a slave not to be sold, the hands of this barber shall be cut off. If a man strike a free-born woman so that she lose her unborn child, he shall pay ten shekels for her loss. If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out. If a son strike his father, his hands shall be hewn off. If a son of a paramour or a prostitute say to his adoptive father or mother: “You are not my father, or my mother,” his tongue shall be cut off. ![]() If a tavern-keeper (feminine) does not accept corn according to gross weight in payment of a drink, but takes money, and the price of the drink is less than that of the corn, she shall be convicted and thrown into the water. If any one is committing a robbery and is caught, then he shall be put to death. If any one finds runaway male or female slaves in the open country and bring them to their masters, the master of the slaves shall pay him two shekels of silver. Here are some of the more unusual laws that seem very foreign to a modern society: Most of the nearly 300 laws written on the pillar pertain to property rights of landowners, slavemasters, merchants, and builders. Members of the upper-class often received harsher punishments than commoners, and women had quite a few important rights. Some laws were quite brutal, others rather progressive. So begins the Law Code of Hammurabi, a list of nearly 300 laws etched into a two and one-half meter high black diorite pillar, discovered in 1902 but dating back to the time of Hammurabi himself (1792-1750 B.C.E). “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 …” Despite what many people believe, this code of laws was not the first.ĭon’t mess with the serpent-headed, scorpion-tailed mythical dragon of the god Marduk! These laws were reviewed and some were changed or eliminated before compiling his final list of 282 laws. Therefore, he sent legal experts throughout his kingdom to gather existing laws. Hammurabi keenly understood that, to achieve this goal, he needed one universal set of laws for all of the diverse peoples he conquered. As he conquered other city-states and his empire grew, he saw the need to unify the various groups he controlled. ![]() When he began ruling the city-state of Babylon, he had control of no more than 50 square miles of territory. ![]() Although he was concerned with keeping order in his kingdom, this was not his only reason for compiling the list of laws. He ruled the Babylonian Empire from 1792-50 B.C.E. Hammurabi is the best known and most celebrated of all Mesopotamian kings. The code was found by French archaeologists in 1901 while excavating the ancient city of Susa, which is in modern-day Iran. “An eye for an eye …” is a paraphrase of Hammurabi’s Code, a collection of 282 laws inscribed on an upright stone pillar. This phrase, along with the idea of written laws, goes back to ancient Mesopotamian culture that prospered long before the Bible was written or the civilizations of the Greeks or Romans flowered. “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” “Hammurabi, the king of righteousness, on whom Shamash has conferred the law, am I.” ![]()
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