World History
Ch. 3: First Civilizations
The Code of Hammurabi
When Marduk [the patron god of Babylon] sent me to rule the people and to bring help to
the county, I established law and justice in the language of the land and promoted the
welfare of the people. At that time I decreed:
1. If a man accuses another man of murder but cannot prove it, the accuser shall be put to
death.
2. If a man bears false witness in a case, or cannot prove his testimony, if that case
involves life or death, he shall be put to death.
21. If a man has broken into a house, he shall be killed before the breach and walled in it.
22. If a man has robbed and has been captured, that man shall be put to death.
23. If the robber has not been caught, the man who has been despoiled shall recount
before the god what he has lost, and the city and governor in whose territory the robbery
took place shall make good to him his loss.
25. If a fire broke out in a man’s house and a man who has come to extinguish the fire
has lifted his eyes to the property of the householder and has taken the property of the
householder, that man shall be thrown into the fire.
102. If a merchant entrust money to an agent (broker) for some investment, and the
broker suffer a loss in the place to which he goes, he shall make good the capital to the
merchant.
116. If the prisoner dies in prison from blows or maltreatment, the master of the prisoner
shall convict the merchant before the judge. If he was a free-born man, the son of the
merchant shall be put to death; if it was a slave, he shall pay one-third of a mina of gold,
and all that the master of the prisoner gave he shall forfeit.
128. If a man has married a wife and has not drawn up a contract, that woman is no wife.
129. If the wife of a man has been caught lying with another man, they shall bind them
and thrown them into the waters. If the husband of the woman wishes to spare his wife,
then the king may in turn spare his subject.
131. If a wife has been accused by her husband and she has not been caught lying with
another male, she shall swear by god and return to her house.
132. If a wife has the finger pointed at her on account of another male but has not been
caught lying with another male, for the sake of her husband she shall throw herself into
the holy river. [This may refer to the practice of trial by ordeal. The woman throws herself into the river
and her tendency to sink or to float determines her guilt or innocence. ]
138. If a man wants to divorce his wife who has not borne him children, he shall give her
money equal to her marriage price and shall repay to her the dowry she brought from her
father; and then he may divorce her.
141. If the wife of a man who is living in the house of her husband has made up her mind
to leave the house to engage in business and has acted the fool, neglecting the house and
humiliating the husband, it shall be proved against her; and if her husband has said “I
divorce her,” he shall divorce her and she shall go her way, and he shall not give her
anything for her divorce.
142. If a woman hates her husband and says, “You may not possess me,” the city council
shall inquire into her case; and if she has been economical and has no vice and her
husband has been going about and greatly belittling her, that woman has no blame; she
may take her dowry and return to her father’s house.
143. If she has not been economical, a gadabout, has neglected her house and humiliated
her husband, that woman they shall throw into the waters.
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.
196. If a man has destroyed the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye.
198. If he has destroyed the eye of a commoner or broken the bone of a commoner, he
shall pay one mina of silver.
199. If he has destroyed the eye of a man’s slave or has broken the bone of a man’s slave,
he shall pay one-half its value.
200. If a man knocks out a tooth of a man of his own rank, they shall knock out his tooth.
209. If a free man struck another free man’s daughter and has caused her to have a
miscarriage, he shall pay 10 shekels of silver for her fetus.
210. If that woman has died, they shall put his daughter to death.
229. If a builder has built a house and not made his work strong and the house he built
has fallen and so caused the death of the owner of the house, that builder shall be put to
death.
230. If he has caused the son of the owner of the house to die, they shall put to death the
son of the builder.
252. If a man kills a man’s slave, he shall pay the owner one-third of a mina.