of the maid-servant: "My sons," and then the father dies, then the sons
of the maid-servant shall not share with the sons of the wife, but the
freedom of the maid and her sons shall be granted. The sons of the wife
shall have no right to enslave the sons of the maid; the wife shall take
her dowry [from her father], and the gift that her husband gave her and
deeded to her [separate from dowry, or the purchase money paid her
father], and live in the home of her husband: so long as she lives she
shall use it, it shall not be sold for money. Whatever she leaves shall
belong to her children.
172. If her husband made her no gift, she shall be compensated for her
gift, and she shall receive a portion from the estate of her husband,
equal to that of one child. If her sons oppress her, to force her out of
the house, the judge shall examine into the matter, and if the sons are
at fault the woman shall not leave her husband's house. If the woman
desire to leave the house, she must leave to her sons the gift which her
husband gave her, but she may take the dowry of her father's house. Then
she may marry the man of her heart.
173. If this woman bear sons to her second husband, in the place to
which she went, and then die, her earlier and later sons shall divide
the dowry between them.
174. If she bear no sons to her second husband, the sons of her first
husband shall have the dowry.
175. If a state slave or the slave of a freed man marry the daughter of
a free man, and children are born, the master of the slave shall have no
right to enslave the children of the free.
176. If, however, a state slave or the slave of a freed man marry a
man's daughter, and after he married her she bring a dowry from a
father's house, if then they both enjoy it and found a household, and
accumulate means, if then the slave die, then she who was free born may
take her dowry, and all that her husband and she had earned; she shall
divide them into two parts, one-half the master for the slave shall
take, and the other half shall the free-born woman take for her
children. 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.
177. If a widow, whose children are not grown, wishes to enter another
house [remarry], she shall not enter it without the knowledge of the
judge. If she enter another house the judge shall examine the estate of
the house of her first husband. Then the house of her first husband
shall be intrusted to the second husband and the woman herself as
managers. And a record must be made thereof. She shall keep the house in
order, bring up the children, and not sell the household utensils. He
who buys the utensils of the children of a widow shall lose his money,
and the goods shall return to their owners.
178. If a "devoted woman" or a prostitute [connected with the temple
neither can marry] to whom her father has given a dowry and a deed
therefor, but if in this deed it is not stated that she may bequeath it
as she pleases, and has not explicitly stated that she has the right of
disposal; if then her father die, then her brothers shall hold her field
and garden, and give her corn, oil and milk according to her portion,
and satisfy her. If her brothers do not give her corn, oil and milk
according to her share, then her field and garden shall be given to a
farmer whom she chooses and the farmer shall support her. She shall have
the usufruct of field and garden and all that her father gave her so
long as she lives, but she cannot sell or assign it to others. Her
position of inheritance belongs to her brothers.
179. If a "sister of a god" [whose hire went to the revenue of the
temple, counterpart to the public prostitute], or a prostitute, receive
a gift from her father, and a deed in which it has been explicitly
stated that she may dispose of it as she pleases, and give her complete
disposition thereof: if then her father die, then she may leave her
property to whomsoever she pleases. Her brothers can raise no claim
thereto.
180. If a father give a present to his daughter--either marriageable or
a prostitute [unmarriageable]--and then die, then she is to receive a
portion as a child from the paternal estate, and enjoy its usufruct so
long as she lives. Her estate belongs to her brothers.
181. If a father devote a temple-maid or temple-virgin to God and give
her no present: if then the father die, she shall receive the third of a
child's portion from the inheritance of her father's house, and enjoy
its usufruct so long as she lives. Her estate belongs to her brothers.
182. If a father devote his daughter as a wife of Marduk 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 she shall not have the management
thereof. A wife of Marduk may leave her estate to whomsoever she wishes.
183. If a man give his daughter by a concubine a dowry, and a husband,
and a deed; if then her father die, she shall receive no portion from
the paternal estate.
184. If a man do not give a dowry to his daughter by a concubine, and no
husband; if then her father die then her brother shall give her a dowry
according to her father's wealth and secure a husband for her.
185. If a man adopt a child and to his name as son, and rear him, this
grown son cannot be demanded back again.
186. 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.
187. The son of a paramour in the palace service, or of a prostitute,
cannot be demanded back.
188. If an artisan has undertaken to rear a child and teaches him his
craft, he cannot be demanded back.
189. If he has not taught him his craft, this adopted son may return to
his father's house.
190. If a man does not maintain a child that he has adopted as son and
reared with his other children, then his adopted son may return to his
father's house.
191. If a man, who had adopted a son and reared him, founded a
household, and had children, wish to put this adopted son out, then this
son shall not simply go his way. His adoptive father shall give him of
his wealth one-third of a child's portion, and then he may go. He shall
not give him of the field, garden and house.
192. 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.
193. If the son of a paramour or a prostitute desire his father's house,
and desert his adoptive father and adoptive mother, and goes to his
father's house, then shall his eye be put out.
194. If a man give his child to a nurse and the child die in her hands,
but the nurse unbeknown to the father and mother nurse another child,
then they shall convict her of having nursed another child without the
knowledge of the father and mother and her breasts shall be cut off.
195. If a son strike his father, his hands shall be hewn off.
196. If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.
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.
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-hide whip in public.
203. If a free-born man strike the body of another free-born man of
equal rank, he shall pay one gold mina.
204. If a freed man strike the body of another freed man, he shall pay
ten shekels in money.
205. If the slave of a freed man strike the body of a freed man, his ear
shall be cut off.
206. If during a quarrel one man strike another and wound him, then he
shall swear, "I did not injure him wittingly," and pay the physician.
207. 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.
208. If he was a freed man, he shall pay one-third of a mina.
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.
211. If a woman of the freed class lose her child by a blow, he shall
pay five shekels in money.
212. If this woman die, he shall pay half a mina.
213. If he strike the maid-servant of a man, and she lose her child, he
shall pay two shekels in money.
214. If this maid-servant die, he shall pay one-third of a mina.
215. If a physician make a large incision with a operating knife and
cure it, or if he open a tumor [over the eye] with an operating knife,
and saves the eye, he shall receive ten shekels in money.
216. If the patient be a freed man, he receives five shekels.
217. If he be the slave of some one, his owner shall give the physician
two shekels.
218. If a physician make a large incision with the operating knife, and
kill him, or open a tumor with the operating knife, and cut out the eye,
his hands shall be cut off.
219. If a physician make a large incision in the slave of a freed man,
and kill him, he shall replace the slave with another slave.
220. If he had opened a tumor with the operating knife, and put out his
eye, he shall pay half his value.
221. If a physician heal the broken bone or diseased soft part of a man,
the patient shall pay the physician five shekels in money.
222. If he were a freed man he shall pay three shekels.
223. If he were a slave his owner shall pay the physician two shekels.
224. If a veterinary surgeon perform a serious operation on an ass or an
ox, and cure it, the owner shall pay the surgeon one-sixth of a shekel
as fee.
225. If he perform, a serious operation on an ass or ox, and kill it, he
shall pay the owner one-fourth of its value.
226. 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.
227. If any one deceive a barber, and have him mark a slave not for sale
with the sign of a slave, he shall be put to death, and buried in his
house. The barber shall swear: "I did not mark him wittingly," and shall
be guiltless.
228. If a builder build a house for some one and complete it, he shall
give him a fee of two shekels in money for each _sar_ of surface.
229. If a builder build a house for some one, and does not construct it
properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then
that builder shall be put to death.
230. If it kill the son of the owner the son of that builder shall be
put to death.
231. If it kill a slave of the owner, then he shall pay slave for slave
to the owner of the house.
232. If it ruin goods, he shall make compensation for all that has been
ruined, and inasmuch as he did not construct properly this house which
he built and it fell, he shall reërect the house from his own means.
233. If a builder build a house for some one, even though he has not
yet completed it; if then the walls seem toppling, the builder must make
the walls solid from his own means.
234. If a shipbuilder build a boat of sixty _gur_ for a man, he shall
pay him a fee of two shekels in money.
235. If a shipbuilder build a boat for some one, and do not make it
tight, if during that same year that boat is sent away and suffers
injury, the shipbuilder shall take the boat apart and put it together
tight at his own expense. The tight boat he shall give to the boat
owner.
236. If a man rent his boat to a sailor, and the sailor is careless, and
the boat is wrecked or goes aground, the sailor shall give the owner of
the boat another boat as compensation.
237. If a man hire a sailor and his boat, and provide it with corn,
clothing, oil and dates, and other things of the kind needed for fitting
it: if the sailor is careless, the boat is wrecked, and its contents
ruined, then the sailor shall compensate for the boat which was wrecked
and all in it that he ruined.
238. If a sailor wreck any one's ship, but saves it, he shall pay the
half of its value in money.
239. If a man hire a sailor, he shall pay him six _gur_ of corn per
year.
240. 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.
241. If any one impresses an ox for forced labor, he shall pay one-third
of a mina in money.
242. If any one hire oxen for a year, he shall pay four _gur_ of corn
for plow-oxen.
243. As rent of herd cattle he shall pay three _gur_ of corn to the
owner.
244. If any one hire an ox or an ass, and a lion kill it in the field,
the loss is upon its owner.
245. If any one hire oxen, and kill them by bad treatment or blows, he
shall compensate the owner, oxen for oxen.
246. If a man hire an ox, and he break its leg or cut the ligament of
its neck, he shall compensate the owner with ox for ox.
247. If any one hire an ox, and put out its eye, he shall pay the owner
one-half of its value.
248. If any one hire an ox, and break off a horn, or cut off its tail or
hurt its muzzle, he shall pay one-fourth of its value in money.
249. If any one hire an ox, and God strike it that it die, the man who
hired it shall swear by God and be considered guiltless.
250. If while an ox is passing on the street [market?] some one push it,
and kill it, the owner can set up no claim in the suit [against the
hirer].
251. If an ox be a goring ox, and it is shown that he is a gorer, and he
do not bind his horns, or fasten the ox up, and the ox gore a free-born
man and kill him, the owner shall pay one-half a mina in money.
252. If he kill a man's slave, he shall pay one-third of a mina.
253. If any one agree with another to tend his field, give him seed,
intrust a yoke of oxen to him, and bind him to cultivate the field, if
he steal the corn or plants, and take them for himself, his hands shall
be hewn off.
254. 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.
255. If he sublet the man's yoke of oxen or steal the seed-corn,
planting nothing in the field, he shall be convicted, and for each one
hundred _gan_ he shall pay sixty _gur_ of corn.
256. If his community will not pay for him, then he shall be placed in
that field with the cattle [at work].
257. If any one hire a field laborer, he shall pay him eight _gur_ of
corn per year.
258. If any one hire an ox-driver, he shall pay him six _gur_ of corn
per year.
259. If any one steal a water-wheel from the field, he shall pay five
shekels in money to its owner.
260. If any one steal a _shadduf_ [used to draw water from the river or
canal] or a plow, he shall pay three shekels in money.
261. If any one hire a herdsman for cattle or sheep, he shall pay him
eight _gur_ of corn per annum.
262. If any one, a cow or a sheep ... [broken off].
263. If he kill the cattle or sheep that were given to him, he shall
compensate the owner with cattle for cattle and sheep for sheep.
264. If a herdsman, to whom cattle or sheep have been intrusted for
watching over, and who has received his wages as agreed upon, and is
satisfied, diminish the number of the cattle or sheep, or make the
increase by birth less, he shall make good the increase and profit which
was lost in the terms of settlement.
265. If a herdsman, to whose care cattle or sheep have been intrusted,
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.
266. If the animal be killed in the stable by God [an accident], or if a
lion kill it, the herdsman shall declare his innocence before God, and
the owner bears the accident in the stable.
267. If the herdsman overlook something, and an accident happen in the
stable, then the herdsman is at fault for the accident which he has
caused in the stable, and he must compensate the owner for the cattle or
sheep.
268. If any one hire an ox for threshing, the amount of the hire is
twenty _ka_ of corn.
269. If he hire an ass for threshing, the hire is twenty _ka_ of corn.
270. If he hire a young animal for threshing, the hire is ten _ka_ of
corn.
271. If any one hire oxen, cart and driver, he shall pay one hundred and
eighty _ka_ of corn per day.
272. If any one hire a cart alone, he shall pay forty _ka_ of corn per
day.
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 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.
274. If any one hire a skilled artisan, he shall pay as wages of the ...
five gerahs, as wages of the potter five gerahs, of a tailor five gerahs,
of ... gerahs, ... of ... gerahs ... of ... gerahs, of a carpenter four
gerahs, of a rope-maker four gerahs, of ... gerahs, of a mason ... gerahs
per day.
275. If any one hire a ferryboat, he shall pay three gerahs in money per
day.
276. If he hire a freight-boat, he shall pay two and one-half gerahs per
day.
277. If any one hire a ship of sixty _gur_ he shall pay one-sixth of a
shekel in money as its hire per day.
278. If any one buy a male or female slave, and before a month has
elapsed the _benu_-disease be developed, he shall return the slave to
the seller, and receive the money which he had paid.
279. If any one buy a male or female slave, and a third party claim it,
the seller is liable for the claim.
280. If while in a foreign country a man buy a male or female slave
belonging to another [of his own country]: if when he return home the
owner of the male or female slave recognize it: if the male or female
slave be a native of the country, he shall give them back without any
money.
281. If they are from another country, the buyer shall declare the
amount of money he paid before God, and the owner shall give the money
paid therefor to the merchant, and keep the male or female slave.
282. If a slave say to his master: "You are not my master," if they
convict him his master shall cut off his ear.
THE EPILOGUE
Laws of justice which Hammurabi, the wise king, established, A righteous
law, and pious statute did he teach the land. Hammurabi, the protecting
king am I. I have not withdrawn myself from the men, whom Bel gave to
me, the rule over whom Marduk gave to me, I was not negligent, but I
made them a peaceful abiding place. I expounded all great difficulties,
I made the light shine upon them. With the mighty weapons which Zamama
and Ishtar intrusted to me, with the keen vision with which Ea endowed
me, with the wisdom that Marduk gave me, I have uprooted the enemy above
and below [in north and south], subdued the earth, brought prosperity to
the land, guaranteed security to the inhabitants in their homes; a
disturber was not permitted. The great gods have called me, I am the
salvation-bearing shepherd [ruler], whose staff [sceptre] is straight
[just], the good shadow that is spread over my city; on my breast I
cherish the inhabitants of the land of Sumer and Akkad [Babylonia]; in
my shelter I have let them repose in peace; in my deep wisdom have I
inclosed them. That the strong might not injure the weak, in order to
protect the widows and orphans, I have in Babylon the city where Anu and
Bel raise high their head, in E-Sagil, the Temple, whose foundations
stand firm as heaven and earth, in order to bespeak justice in the land,
to settle all disputes, and heal all injuries, set up these my precious
words, written upon my memorial stone, before the image of me, as king
of righteousness.
The king who ruleth among the kings of the cities am I. My words are
well considered; there is no wisdom like unto mine. By the command of
Shamash [the sun-god], the great judge of heaven and earth, let
righteousness go forth in the land: by the order of Marduk, my lord, let
no destruction befall my monument. In E-Sagil, which I love, let my name
be ever repeated; let the oppressed, who has a case at law, come and
stand before this my image as king of righteousness; let him read the
inscription, and understand my precious words: the inscription will
explain his case to him; he will find out what is just, and his heart
will be glad [so that he will say]:
"Hammurabi is a ruler, who is as a father to his subjects, who holds the
words of Marduk in reverence, who has achieved conquest for Marduk over
the north and south, who rejoices the heart of Marduk, his lord, who has
bestowed benefits forever and ever on his subjects, and has established
order in the land."
When he reads the record, let him pray with full heart to Marduk, my
lord, and Zarpanit, my lady; and then shall the protecting deities and
the gods, who frequent E-Sagil, graciously grant the desires daily
presented before Marduk, my lord, and Zarpanit, my lady.
In future time, through all coming generations, let the king, who may be
in the land, observe the words of righteousness which I have written on
my monument; let him not alter the law of the land which I have given,
the edicts which I have enacted; my monument let him not mar. If such a
ruler have wisdom, and be able to keep his land in order, he shall
observe the words which I have written in this inscription; the rule,
statute and law of the land which I have given; the decisions which I
have made will this inscription show him; let him rule his subjects
accordingly, speak justice to them, give right decisions, root out the
miscreants and criminals from his land, and grant prosperity to his
subjects.