Code Of Hammurabi Code

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Khammurabi (Hammurabi) was the sixth king of Babylon. King Hammurabi ruled from 1729 to

1750 BCE. Not long after he was crowned, Hammurabi expanded his empire until he ruled over

all of Mesopotamia, now known as Iraq. Hammurabi is famously known for the laws that were

enforced in his kingdom. Although the rules may have been strict, the punishments usually

resulted in the loss of a limb or death. There are 282 laws and punishments contained in the laws

of Hammurabi’s code.

Hammurabi’s code has been immortalized in a black stone pillar. The inscription stands seven

feet and four inches tall. Four tons of steel-like material made of black diorite hold the laws on

its surface. Flowing down the black stone is the 282 laws prestigiously
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Sitting above the laws is a relief sculpture of Khammurabi kneeling to receive the 282 laws

from Shamash (the Babylonian god of justice), who is seated.

Many different phrases have originated from the laws in Hammurabi’s code; for example, “an

eye for an eye.” Most people think that it originally was “an eye for and eye, and a tooth for a

tooth” but they are separate laws. “An eye for an eye” is rule 196 and “a tooth for a tooth” is rule

200, 1meaning if you were to being harm to someone’s eyes you would have harm brought to

your eyes, or if you knocked someone’s tooth out your tooth would be knocked out as well. In

the 21st century American justice system, “innocent until proven guilty” also came from

1 King, L. W., (2008)

Bryson 2

Hammurabi’s code. The statement, which we believe is “innocent until proven guilty”,
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This class was made up of the king, the

king 's court, the higher officials, the professions, and craftsmen. Lower class citizens paid less

for fine and fees but the punishment for their crimes were often gruesome, like slaves were put to

death for any severe crime. Gender punishment, for example, “men were allowed to have

extramarital relationships with maid-servants and slaves, but philandering women were to be

bound and tossed into the Euphrates river along with their lover.”4

Some of king Hammurabi’s laws from Hammurabi’s code were reasonably fair and should still

be enforced, like rule 48 which states "If anyone owe a debt for a loan, and a storm prostrates

(kills) the grain, or the harvest fail, or the grain does not grow for lack of water, in that year he

need not give his creditor any grain; he washes his debt-tablet in water and pays no rent for this

year." 5Although some rules were reasonably fair, others were not; For example, rule 110 states

“If a "sister of a god"(a nun) open a tavern, or enter a tavern to drink, then shall this woman

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