The Laws of Hammurabi
Questions for Analysis:
1). What basic principle do all these laws have in common, in other words, how
are all the different kinds of punishments similar to each other? How are they
different from the kinds of punishments we have in our society today?
2). What does the law code of king Hammurabi tell us about society in ancient
Babylon? Is there personal freedom social equality for everyone? What rights
and position do women have compared to men? Did the Babylonian law mean
that “all people created equal?”
3). What responsibilities do merchants, doctors, builders & other service
providers have for their work? What rights do buyers of these services have if
things go wrong?
4). What rights & responsibilities do husbands and wives have with respect to
marriage, adultery, inheritance, divorce & children?
5). Why do you think that prison time is never mentioned? How effective do you
think these laws were in keeping order in Babylonian society under King
Hammurabi? How would a punished criminal interact in society– (assuming he
didn’t get the death penalty of course)– after he was punished and released?
1. If a man has accused another of laying a death spell upon him, but has not
proved it, he shall be put to death.
2. If a man has accused another of laying a curse upon him, but has not proved
it, the accused shall go to the sacred river, he shall plunge into the sacred river,
and if the river shall conquer him, he that accused him shall take possession of
his house. If the sacred river shall show his innocence and he is saved, his
accuser shall be put to death. He that plunged into the sacred river shall
appropriate the house of him that accused.
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.
5. If a judge has given a verdict, rendered a decision, granted a written judgment,
and afterward has altered his judgment, that judge shall be prosecuted for
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altering the judgment he gave and shall pay twelvefold the penalty laid down in
that judgment. Further, he shall be publicly expelled from his judgment-seat and
shall not return nor take his seat with the judges at a trial.
6. If a man has stolen goods from a temple, or house, he shall be put to death;
and he that has received the stolen property from him shall be put to death.
7. If a man has bought or received on deposit from a minor or a slave, either
silver, gold, male or female slave, ox, ass, or sheep, or anything else, except by
consent of elders, or power of attorney, he shall be put to death for theft.
8. If a free man has stolen ox, sheep, ass, pig, or ship, whether from a temple, or
a house, he shall pay thirtyfold. If he be a peasant, he shall return tenfold. If the
thief cannot pay, he shall be put to death.
9. If a man has lost property and some of it be detected in the possession of
another, and the holder has said, “A man sold it to me, I bought it in the presence
of witnesses”; and if the claimant has said, “I can bring witnesses who know it to
be property lost by me”; then the alleged buyer on his part shall produce the man
who sold it to him and the witnesses before whom he bought it; the claimant shall
on his part produce the witnesses who know it to be his lost property. The judge
shall examine their pleas. The witnesses to the sale and the witnesses who
identify the lost property shall state on oath what they know. Such a seller is the
thief and shall be put to death. The owner of the lost property shall recover his
lost property. The buyer shall recoup himself from the seller’s estate.
10. If the alleged buyer on his part has not produced the seller or the witnesses
before whom the sale took place, but the owner of the lost property on his part
has produced the witnesses who identify it as his, then the [pretended] buyer is
the thief; he shall be put to death. The owner of the lost property shall take his
lost property.
11. If, on the other hand, the claimant of the lost property has not brought the
witnesses that know his lost property, he has been guilty of slander, he has
stirred up strife, he shall be put to death.
12. If the seller has in the meantime died, the buyer shall take from his estate
fivefold the value sued for.
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.
14. If a man has stolen a child, he shall be put to death.
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15. If a man has induced either a male or a female slave from the house of a free
man, or peasant, to leave the city, he shall be put to death.
16. If a man has harbored in his house a male or female slave from a free man’s
or peasant’s house, and has not caused the fugitive to leave on the demand of
the officer over the slaves condemned to public forced labor, that householder
shall be put to death.
17. If a man has caught either a male or female runaway slave in the open field
and has brought him back to his owner, the owner of the slave shall give him two
shekels of silver.
18. If such a slave will not name his owner, his captor shall bring him to the
palace, where he shall be examined as to his past and returned to his owner.
19. If the captor has secreted that slave in his house and afterward that slave has
been caught in his possession, he shall be put to death.
20. If the slave has fled from the hands of his captor, the latter shall swear to the
owner of the slave and he shall be free from blame.
21. If a man has broken into a house he shall be killed before the breach and
buried there.
22. If a man has committed highway robbery and has been caught, that man
shall be put to death.
23. If the highwayman has not been caught, the man that has been robbed shall
state on oath what he has lost and the city or district governor in whose territory
or district the robbery took place shall restore to him what he lost.
24. If a life [has been lost], the city or district governor shall pay one mina of
silver to the deceased’s relatives.
25. If a fire has broken out in a man’s house and one who has come to put it out
has coveted the property of the householder and appropriated any of it, that man
shall be cast into the self-same fire.
128. If a man has taken a wife and has not executed a marriage contract, that
woman is not a wife.
129. If a man’s wife be caught lying with another, they shall be strangled and cast
into the water. If the wife’s husband would save his wife, the king can save his
servant.
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130. If a man has ravished another’s betrothed wife, who is a virgin, while still
living in her father’s house, and has been caught in the act, that man shall be put
to death; the woman shall go free.
131. If a man’s wife has been accused by her husband, and has not been caught
lying with another, she shall swear her innocence, and return to her house.
132. If a man’s wife has the finger pointed at her on account of another, but has
not been caught lying with him, for her husband’s sake she shall plunge into the
sacred river.
133. If a man has been taken captive, and there was maintenance in his house,
but his wife has left her house and entered another man’s house; because that
woman has not preserved her body, and has entered into the house of another,
that woman shall be prosecuted and shall be drowned.
134. If a man has been taken captive, but there was not maintenance in his
house, and his wife has entered into the house of another, that woman has no
blame.
135. If a man has been taken captive, but there was no maintenance in his house
for his wife, and she has entered into the house of another, and has borne him
children, if in the future her [first] husband shall return and regain his city, that
woman shall return to her first husband, but the children shall follow their own
father.
136. If a man has left his city and fled, and, after he has gone, his wife has
entered into the house of another; if the man return and seize his wife, the wife of
the fugitive shall not return to her husband, because he hated his city and fled.
137. If a man has determined to divorce a concubine who has borne him
children, or a votary who has granted him children, he shall return to that woman
her marriage-portion, and shall give her the produce of field, garden, and goods,
to bring up her children. After her children have grown up, out of whatever is
given to her children, they shall give her one son’s share, and the husband of her
choice shall marry her.
138. If a man has divorced his wife, who has not borne him children, he shall pay
over to her as much money as was given for her bride-price and the marriage portion which she brought from her father’s house, and so shall divorce her.
139. If there was no bride-price, he shall give her one mina of silver, as a price of
divorce.
140. If he be a peasant, he shall give her one-third of a mina of silver.
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141. If a man’s wife, living in her husband’s house, has persisted in going out,
has acted the fool, has wasted her house, has belittled her husband, he shall
prosecute her. If her husband has said, “I divorce her,” she shall go her way; he
shall give her nothing as her price of divorce. If her husband has said, “I will not
divorce her,” he may take another woman to wife; the wife shall live as a slave in
her husband’s house.
142. If a woman has hated her husband and has said, “You shall not possess
me,” her past shall be inquired into, as to what she lacks. If she has been
discreet, and has no vice, and her husband has gone out, and has greatly
belittled her, that woman has no blame, she shall take her marriage-portion and
go off to her father’s house.
143. If she has not been discreet, has gone out, ruined her house, belittled her
husband, she shall be drowned.
144. If a man has married a votary, and that votary has given a maid to her
husband, and so caused him to have children, and, if that man is inclined to
marry a concubine, that man shall not be allowed to do so, he shall not marry a
concubine.
145. If a man has married a votary, and she has not granted him children, and he
is determined to marry a concubine, that man shall marry the concubine, and
bring her into his house, but the concubine shall not place herself on an equality
with the votary.
146. If a man has married a votary, and she has given a maid to her husband,
and the maid has borne children, and if afterward that maid has placed herself on
an equality with her mistress, because she has borne children, her mistress shall
not sell her, she shall place a slave-mark upon her, and reckon her with the
slave-girls.
147. If she has not borne children, her mistress shall sell her.
148. If a man has married a wife and a disease has seized her, if he is
determined to marry a second wife, he shall marry her. He shall not divorce the
wife whom the disease has seized. In the home they made together she shall
dwell, and he shall maintain her as long as she lives.
149. If that woman was not pleased to stay in her husband’s house, he shall pay
over to her the marriage-portion which she brought from her father’s house, and
she shall go away.
150. If a man has presented field, garden, house, or goods to his wife, has
granted her a deed of gift, her children, after her husband’s death, shall not
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dispute her right; the mother shall leave it after her death to that one of her
children whom she loves best. She shall not leave it to her kindred.
151. If a woman, who is living in a man’s house, has persuaded her husband to
bind himself, and grant her a deed to the effect that she shall not be held for debt
by a creditor of her husband’s; if that man had a debt upon him before he married
that woman, his creditor shall not take his wife for it. Also, if that woman had a
debt upon her before she entered that man’s house, her creditor shall not take
her husband for it.
152. From the time that the woman entered into the man’s house they together
shall be liable for all debts subsequently incurred.
153. If a man’s wife, for the sake of another, has caused her husband to be killed,
that woman shall be impaled.
154. If a man has committed incest with his daughter, that man shall be banished
from the city.
155. If a man has betrothed a maiden to his son and his son has known her, and
afterward the man has lain in her bosom, and been caught, that man shall be
strangled and she shall be cast into the water.
156. If a man has betrothed a maiden to his son, and his son has not known her,
and that man has lain in her bosom, he shall pay her half a mina of silver, and
shall pay over to her whatever she brought from her father’s house, and the
husband of her choice shall marry her.
157. If a man, after his father’s death, has lain in the bosom of his mother, they
shall both of them be burnt together.
162. If a man has married a wife, and she has borne him children, and that
woman has gone to her fate, her father shall lay no claim to her marriage-portion.
Her marriage-portion is her children’s only.
163. If a man has married a wife, and she has not borne him children, and that
woman has gone to her fate; if his father-in-law has returned to him the bride price, which that man brought into the house of his father-in-law, her husband
shall have no claim on the marriage portion of that woman. Her marriage-portion
indeed belongs to her father’s house.
192. If the son of a palace favorite or the son of a vowed woman has said to the
father that brought him up, “You are not my father,” or to the mother that brought
him up, “You are not my mother,” his tongue shall be cut out.
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193. If the son of a palace favorite or the son of a vowed woman has come to
know his father’s house and has hated his father that brought him up, or his
mother that brought him up, and shall go off to his father’s house, his eyes shall
be torn out.
194. If a man has given his son to a wet-nurse to suckle, and that son has died in
the hands of the nurse, and the nurse, without consent of the child’s father or
mother, has nursed another child, they shall prosecute her; because she has
nursed another child, without consent of the father or mother, her breasts shall
be cut off.
195. If a son has struck his father, his hands shall be cut off.
196. If a man has knocked out the eye of a free man, his eye shall be knocked
out.
197. If he has broken the limb of a free man, his limb shall be broken.
198. If he has knocked out the eye of a peasant or has broken the limb of a
peasant, he shall pay one mina of silver.
199. If he has knocked out the eye of a free man’s servant, or broken the limb of
a free man’s servant, he shall pay half his value.
200. If a free man has knocked out the tooth of a man that is his equal, his tooth
shall be knocked out.
201. If he has knocked out the tooth of a peasant, he shall pay one-third of a
mina of silver.
202. If a man has smitten the privates of a man, higher in rank than he, he shall
be sourged with sixty blows of an ox-hide scourge, in the assembly.
203. If a man has smitten the privates of a free man of his own rank, he shall pay
one mina of silver.
204. If a peasant has smitten the privates of a peasant, he shall pay ten shekels
of silver.
205. If a slave of anyone has smitten the privates of a free-born man, his ear
shall be cut off.
206. If a man has struck another in a quarrel, and caused him a permanent
injury, that man shall swear, “I struck him without malice,” and shall pay the
doctor.
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207. If he has died of his blows, [the man] shall swear [similarly], and pay one half a mina of silver; or,
208. If [the deceased] was a peasant, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver.
209. If a man has struck a free woman with child, and has caused her to
miscarry, he shall pay ten shekels for her miscarriage.
210. If that woman die, his daughter shall be killed.
211. If it be the daughter of a peasant, that has miscarried through his blows, he
shall pay five shekels of silver.
212. If that woman die, he shall pay half a mina of silver.
213. If he has struck a man’s maid and caused her to miscarry, he shall pay two
shekels of silver.
214. If that woman die, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver.
215. If a surgeon has operated with the bronze lancet on a free man for a serious
injury, and has cured him, or has removed with a bronze lancet a cataract for a
free man, and has cured his eye, he shall take ten shekels of silver.
216. If it be a peasant, he shall take five shekels of silver.
217. If it be a man’s slave, the owner of the slave shall give two shekels of silver
to the surgeon.
218. If a surgeon has operated with the bronze lancet on a free man for a serious
injury, and has caused his death, or has removed a cataract for a free man, with
the bronze lancet, and has made him lose his eye, his hands shall be cut off.
219. If the surgeon has treated a serious injury of a peasant’s slave, with the
bronze lancet, and has caused his death, he shall render slave for slave.
220. If he has removed a cataract with the bronze lancet, and made the slave
lose his eye, he shall pay half his value.
221. If a surgeon has cured the limb of a free man, or has doctored a diseased
bowel, the patient shall pay five shekels of silver to the surgeon.
222. If he be a peasant, he shall pay three shekels of silver.
223. If he be a man’s slave, the owner of the slave shall give two shekels of silver
to the doctor.
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224. If a veterinary surgeon has treated an ox, or an ass, for a severe injury, and
cured it, the owner of the ox, or the ass, shall pay the surgeon one-sixth of a
shekel of silver, as his fee.
225. If he has treated an ox, or an ass, for a severe injury, and caused it to die,
he shall pay one-quarter of its value to the owner of the ox, or the ass.
226. If a brander has cut out a mark on a slave, without the consent of his owner,
that brander shall have his hands cut off.
227. If someone has deceived the brander, and induced him to cut out a mark on
a slave, that man shall be put to death and buried in his house; the brander shall
swear, “I did not mark him knowingly,” and shall go free.
228. If a builder has built a house for a man, and finished it, he shall pay him a
fee of two shekels of silver, for each level built on.
229. If a builder has built a house for a man, and has not made his work sound,
and the house he built has fallen, and caused the death of its owner, that builder
shall be put to death.
230. If it is the owner’s son that is killed, the builder’s son shall be put to death.
231. If it is the slave of the owner that is killed, the builder shall give slave for
slave to the owner of the house.
232. If he has caused the loss of goods, he shall render back whatever he has
destroyed. Moreover, because he did not make sound the house he built, and it
fell, at his own cost he shall rebuild the house that fell.
233. If a builder has built a house for a man, and has not keyed his work, and the
wall has fallen, that builder shall make that wall firm at his own expense.
278. If a man has bought a male or female slave and the slave has not fulfilled
his month, but the bennu disease has fallen upon him, he shall return the slave to
the seller and the buyer shall take back the money he paid.
279. If a man has bought a male or female slave and a claim has been raised,
the seller shall answer the claim.
280. If a man, in a foreign land, has bought a male, or female, slave of another,
and if when he has come home the owner of the male or female slave has
recognized his slave, and if the slave be a native of the land, he shall grant him
liberty without money.
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281. If the slave was a native of another country, the buyer shall declare on oath
the amount of money he paid, and the owner of the slave shall repay the
merchant what he paid and keep his slave.
282. If a slave has said to his master, “You are not my master,” he shall be
brought to account as his slave, and his master shall cut off his ear.

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