If a surgeon performs a major operation which saves the life of a free 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. 205. 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. In addition, the renter who has neglected the field must plough it, so 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. The judge shall examine their testimony–both of the witnesses before whom the price was paid, and of the witnesses who identify the lost article on oath. 251. If a father devote his daughter as a wife of Mardi of Babylon (as in 181), and give her no present, nor a deed; if then her father die, then shall she receive one-third of her portion as a child of her father’s house from her brothers, but Marduk may leave her estate to whomsoever she wishes. All the people had to follow these laws or face the punishment if found guilty of breaking the law: If any one brings an accusation of any crime before the elders, and does not prove what he has charged, he shall, if it was a capital offense charged, be put to death. If any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall ... 3. 282. If this woman does not wish to remain in her husband’s house, then he shall compensate her for the dowry that she brought with her from her father’s house, and she may go. If a chieftain or a man be caught in the misfortune of a king, if his son is able to enter into possession, then the field and garden shall be given to him, he shall take over the fee of his father. Let these curses be unalterable, and let them quickly overtake the kings If she enter another house the judge shall examine the state of the house of her first husband. of Mesopotamian Documents. 159. 226. The owner of the lost article receives his property, and he who bought it receives the money he paid from the estate of the merchant. His adoptive father shall give him of his wealth one-third of a child’s portion, and then he may go. 88. 173. 158. 139. 145. As for the kings who do not listen to my words, may their destinies be cursed, If a man bring chattels into the house of his father-in-law, and pay the “purchase price” (for his wife): if then the father of the girl say: “I will not give you my daughter,” he shall give him back all that he brought with him. 216. 15. be paid sixteen grams of silver for every thirty-five square meters of the bone shall be broken. If a man be taken prisoner in war and there be no sustenance in his house and his wife go to another house and bear children; and if later her husband return and come to his home: then this wife shall return to her husband, but the children follow their father. shall pay for the loss. If any one hire a skilled artizan, he shall pay as wages of the . 215. 111. 275. Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next 200. shall be executed. 164. 46. If the free-born woman had no gift she shall take all that her husband and she had earned and divide it into two parts; and the master of the slave shall take one-half and she shall take the other for her children. 179. 59. 41. 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. 169. 49. 143. If a son strike his father, his hands shall be hewn off. Gave the rule of human beings to Marduk, set him over all other deities, 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. 115. 217. 2. 63. Introduction. 253. 128. The following are just some of the laws contained in the Code of Hammurabi. 150. 249. when they were married plus the dowry she brought from her father's house; 48. 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. Whatever she leaves shall belong to her children. If a man marry a woman, and she bear sons to him; if then this woman die, then shall her father have no claim on her dowry; this belongs to her sons. flogged and half of that free person's head shall be shaved. 274. 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. If a judge delivers a written verdict and later changes it, that judge How do we know about the Code of Hammurabi? Like the laws of today, Hammurabi's Code lays out specific punishments for specific crimes. If any one fence in the field, garden, and house of a chieftain, man, or one subject to quit-rent, furnishing the palings therefor; if the chieftain, man, or one subject to quit-rent return to field, garden, and house, the palings which were given to him become his property. The Code of Hammurabi is often cited as the oldest written laws on record, but they were predated by at least two other ancient codes of conduct from the Middle East. 153. (by cutting the skin, or perhaps hair.). If the cultivator do not plant corn or sesame in the field, the debtor’s contract is not weakened. 137. It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. If a merchantman run against a ferryboat, and wreck it, the master of the ship that was wrecked shall seek justice before God; the master of the merchantman, which wrecked the ferryboat, must compensate the owner for the boat and all that he ruined. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser. If the slave will not give the name of the master, the finder shall bring him to the palace; a further investigation must follow, and the slave shall be returned to his master. The barber shall swear: “I did not mark him wittingly,” and shall be guiltless. 162. 45. If he do not plant the field that was given over to him as a garden, if it be arable land (for corn or sesame) the gardener shall pay the owner the produce of the field for the years that he let it lie fallow, according to the product of neighboring fields, put the field in arable condition and return it to its owner. 138. 141. Laws Concerning Social Structures196. If any one open his ditches to water his crop, but is careless, and the water flood the field of his neighbor, then he shall pay his neighbor corn for his loss. 272. 218. It was the punishment given even for “the theft of temple or palace property or when a runaway slave is given refuge,” van de Mier… If, while on the journey, an enemy take away from him anything that he had, the broker shall swear by God and be free of obligation. 282. If any one steal cattle or sheep, or an ass, or a pig or a goat, if it belong to a god or to the court, the thief shall pay thirtyfold therefor; if they belonged to a freed man of the king he shall pay tenfold; if the thief has nothing with which to pay he shall be put to death. 176. Written in the dominant language at the time, the Akkadian language, the code provided a legal framework for the exchange of goods and services in the ancient city-state of Babylon. If a man let in the water, and the water overflow the plantation of his neighbor, he shall pay ten gur of corn for every ten gan of land. If a free-born man strike the body of another free-born man or equal rank, he shall pay one gold mina. If a free man has sexual relations with his mother after the death of 124. But if the woman, before she entered the man’s house, had contracted a debt, her creditor can not arrest her husband therefor. be paid forty grams of silver. . 56. If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out. When the deities of old who allot the destinies of the world. 3. Like the laws of today, Hammurabi's Code lays out specific punishments for specific crimes. on my monument. 14. If a herdsman, to whose care cattle or sheep have been entrusted, be guilty of fraud and make false returns of the natural increase, or sell them for money, then shall he be convicted and pay the owner ten times the loss. If he take the seed-corn for himself, and do not use the yoke of oxen, he shall compensate him for the amount of the seed-corn. 61. If a man adopt a son, and if after he has taken him he injure his foster father and mother, then this adopted son shall return to his father’s house. 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. 279. 42. own, then the sons have no right to share in the paternal inheritance; but If any one hire a cart alone, he shall pay forty ka of corn per day. master shall cut off the slave's ear. 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. The field, garden, and house of a chieftain, of a man, or of one subject to quit-rent, can not be sold. If any one buy the cattle or sheep which the king has given to chieftains from him, he loses his money. The laws were created while Hammurabi reigned in Babylon from 1792 till 1750 BCE. ( Log Out /  191. . 197. at a higher rate, that merchant shall forfeit both the capital and the interest. If he hire an ass for threshing, the hire is twenty ka of corn. 237. 222. If the robber is not caught, then shall he who was robbed claim under oath the amount of his loss; then shall the community, and . I am the shepherd who brings well-being and abundant prosperity; my rule A partial copy exists on a 2.25-metre-tall (7.4 ft) stone stele. Around 1792 BCE, Hammurabi became the king of Babylon. 230. If a free person helps a slave of either a palace or a civil-servant escape, 255. The code, written in cuneiform was displayed on huge pillars near If any one be captured in war and there is not sustenance in his house, if then his wife go to another house this woman shall be held blameless. Rummel re-organized them under headings he supplied. These are the regulations which Hammurabi the able king has established 154. . See your Stokstad book, page 38, for a description of the code and the Stele of Hammurabi on which it is inscribed. If an inn-keeper furnish sixty ka of usakani-drink to . 28. be done. 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. the deceased. by name for the welfare of the people: To cause justice to appear in the world, to destroy the evil and the wicked 51. that another free person may rent and cultivate it. . If she bear no sons to her second husband, the sons of her first husband shall have the dowry. 25. Hammurabi also established a set of laws that is today called the Code of Hammurabi. 6. 265. If any one ensnare another, putting a ban upon him, but he can not prove it, then he that ensnared him shall be put to death. that person shall be executed. CODE OF LAWS. 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