Hammurabi

“ If a state slave or the slave of a freedman marries anyone's daughter, and after he has married her and she has moved into that one's house, taking with her the dowry of her father's house, they both have settled down and founded a household of their own, have acquired wealth, and thereupon that slave dies, then this freeborn woman shall take her dowry and all that which she and her husband have acquired since their settling down ”

“ If a man marries a woman who bears him sons and he also has children by a slave, who, during the father's lifetime, were recognized as his sons and declared to be such, and the father then dies, the children of both the wife and the slave shall divide equally the father's estate. ”

“ Istar, the goddess of battle and slaughter, who frees my weapons, my generous protecting deity, who loves my kingdom, in her angry heart, in her great grimness, shall she curse his kingdom, shall turn his benevolence into misfortune and break his weapon at the place of slaughter and battle. ”

“ If a father gives to his daughter—marriageable or public girl—and then dies, she is to receive a child's protection of the paternal estate, and as long as she lives is to have the use thereof. What she leaves behind belongs to her brothers [life estate with remainder to brothers] .
181. In event a father, who dedicated his daughter to the temple, thereupon gives her no dowry and then the father dies, she shall receive from her father's estate [the use of for life] 1⁄3 of her portion of the estate so long as she shall live and at her death her share of the estate is to revert to her brothers. ”

“ If, however, such imprisoned person dies in the house of the claimant from the effects of blows or harsh treatment inflicted upon him, the person causing his restraint [the murderer] shall be produced in court; in event the person dying was a free man, the son of the person causing his death shall suffer the death penalty in event of conviction. If on the other hand the decedent was a slave, the murderer shall pay 1⁄3 "mine" of money [to the decedent's owner] . The murderer's estate shall become the property of the slave's owner [or the heirs of the freeman] . ”

“ If a man shall give to his wife a field, garden, house or other property and gives her written evidence of the conveyance and shall thereafter die, in event her sons lay no claim to the property [by way of hire for services] the widow shall be permitted to bestow upon the son of her choice the estate given her by her husband and is not bound by law to give to her other sons any part thereof.
151. In event a widow marries a second time and her second husband, prior to the marriage, had an estate, this estate shall be exempt from attachment by the creditors of the wife. ”

“ If anyone has the intention to cast from him a side wife [concubine] , who has born children to him and his legal wife has presented him with children, he shall give to each wife her respective children and give her a useful portion of field, garden and possessions that she may raise her children. [In event of her husband's death and all her children reach their majority] when she has raised her children she shall receive [an allotment equal to a son's share of his property] a portion of all that her children receive as is allotted to a son. She may then likewise marry the man of her choice. ”

“ Should anyone bring into the house of his proposed father-in-law and pay to him the grain demanded for his daughter and thereupon is slandered by a third person, whose desire it is to marry the daughter, and the father thereupon refuses to permit the one paying the grain to take his daughter, he, the slandered person, shall be entitled to receive back the grain he has paid to the father of the daughter and the party slandering him shall not be permitted to marry the daughter. ”

“ Any person purchasing the freedom of an officer or man captured while on a march with his king, shall be repaid the ransom money by the captured officer or man, in event the officer or man has property or means sufficient to repay the purchaser of his freedom. In event such ransomed person has no means by which to repay the person purchasing his freedom, the municipality in which such captured person has his domicile shall compensate the purchaser of his freedom, the charge therefor to be first made upon the temple. ”

“ Judgment of Shamash shall overtake him at once, up among the living, cast down his spirit to the earth. He shall let him do without water among the living, without his spirit under the earth. Sin, the lord of the lord of the heaven, the god-father, whose sickle flares up among the gods, shall deprive him of crown and royal throne; the heavy guilt, the great offence, he will not soften ”

“ Any widow, who shall desire to enter into a marriage contract having ungrown children, shall not be permitted to enter into the marriage relation with another person without first gaining permission from the court. If she marries, the value of the estate of her former husband shall be determined by the court and it shall then be given into the custody of the widow and the second husband. ”

“ Any person who without right sells a beef, a sheep, an ass or swine or other personal property, if it be the property of the temple or of the city, shall make restitution thereof 30 fold, if it be the property of a freedman, 10 fold; in event such person has nothing with which to make restitution in accordance with the foregoing provision, he shall be deemed to be a thief and shall suffer the death penalty. ”

“ If that prince heeds my words which I have written in my inscription and does not injure my law, and does not misunderstand my words, does not injure my memorial, so may to that prince as to me, the king of righteousness, Shamash, make his rule long, his subjects he shall rule in justice. If that prince does not heed my words which I have written in my inscription he shall have my curse and contempt ”

“ In event an officer of the king or [drafted] man fails to make provision for the cultivation of his field, garden and the care of his house, or gives them in payment to some other person who enters into possession thereof and occupies the same for the period of 3 years, whereupon such officer or [drafted] man returns to claim such field, garden or house, the officer or [drafted] man shall not be deemed the rightful owner, and the property shall remain in the possession of the person occupying it. ”

“ Nergal, the mighty among the gods, whose conflict is irresistible, who lends me victory in his great violence, who shall consume his subjects like a weak reed, with his mighty weapon he will cut off his limbs, he shall break as an earthen image. ”

“ If anyone buys male or female slaves in a foreign country, and he goes into that country and the owner recognizes his male or female slave; if the male or female slaves are children of a common country he is to return them without paying money damages [being called upon to pay damages to the owner] . ”

“ Anyone harboring a runaway slave, either male or female, of the court, or of a freedman, and failing to produce him or her on the public demand of the major domo of the court, or the house of a freedman, upon conviction thereof shall be deemed guilty of felony and shall suffer death. ”

“ She will bring him disorder and rebellion, shall knock down his warriors, the earth shall drink their blood, heaps of corpses of his troops she shall throw down in the field, a life of mercy not spare him, shall surrender him into the hand of his enemies, shall take him a captive into the country of his enemies. ”

“ If the freeborn woman did not have a dowry, she shall divide everything into two parts which her husband shall have acquired since their settling down, and the owner shall take 1⁄2 and the freeborn woman shall take the other 1⁄2 for her children. ”

“ If a surgeon makes a severe wound with the operating knife on a patient, and the patient dies; or opens a tumor of the eye on anyone and the eye is lost, the surgeon shall have his hands chopped off.
219. If a surgeon performs a serious operation on the slave of a freedman with an operating knife, and kills the slave, he shall give the owner a slave in the deceased one's stead. ”

“ Anyone entering into the possession of a field upon agreement and neglecting to raise grain upon that field shall be held accountable to the owner thereof for a quantity of grain commensurate with that grown in the neighboring fields, upon it being shown that he has failed to comply with the conditions in regard to the cultivation of the land. ”

“ If anyone borrows money upon a cultivated grainfield or cultivated sesame field he shall receive the grain or sesame which is grown upon that field. He shall pay back to the person making him the loan the money borrowed, with interest. ”

“ If anyone is taken prisoner of war and there is no life sustenance [support provided for his wife] in the house and his wife goes into another house and there are children born to her in the house to which she goes, and later her husband returns to his home, then shall his wife return to him ”

“ If anyone has lost an article of personal property and discovers it in the possession of some other person and that person excuses his possession by the statement that still another person sold it to him in the presence of witnesses and that he has paid therefor, and thereupon the owner of the article declares that he is able to bring witnesses to identify his property ”

“ In event anyone borrows money upon a field and fails to raise grain or sesame whereby to repay his creditors, his indebtedness is not extinguished.
53. Anyone failing to keep his [irrigating] dam in repair and through his neglect and laziness a break occurs in the dam and his neighbors' lands are flooded by the overflow of the water therefrom, he shall compensate the owner of the damaged land for his loss of grain or other property [occasioned by the overflow] . ”

“ It must be remembered that in every age and condition of society the great fundamental principles of justice have been and must remain the same. Therefore when we find these principles of justice existing in both the laws of Hammurabi and Moses, we recognize in them the eternal precepts of right and wrong in human society. ”