Code of Hammurabi (Long Version)

Document Text

Prologue

… The gods Anu and Enlil … named me by my name: Hammurabi, the pious prince, who venerates the gods, to make justice prevail in the land, to abolish the wicked and the evil, to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak, to rise like the sun-god Shamash over all humankind, to illuminate the land.

I am Hammurabi, the shepherd …

discerning king, obedient to the god Shamash, the mighty one, who establishes the foundations of the city of Sippar, who … made famous the temple of Ebabbar which is akin to the abode of heaven;

the warrior, who shows mercy to the city of Larsa, who renews the Ebabbar temple for the god Shamash his ally;

the lord who revitalizes the city of Uruk, who provides abundant waters for its people, who raises high the summit of the Eanna temple, who heaps up bountiful produce for the gods Anu and Ishtar;

the protecting canopy of the land, who gathers together the scattered peoples of the city of Isin …

the judicious one, the noble one, who allots pasturage and watering place for the cities of Lagash and Girsu, who provides plentiful food offerings for the Eninnu temple;

who seizes the enemies, beloved of (the goddess Ishtar) the able one … who gladdens the heart of the goddess Ishtar;

the pure prince, whose prayers the god Adad acknowledges …

wise one, the organizer, he who has mastered all wisdom, who shelters the people of the city of Malgium in the face of annihilation, who founds their settlements in abundance …

leader of kings, who subdues the settlements along the Euphrates River by the oracular command of the god Dagan, his creator, who showed mercy to the people of the cities of Mari and Tuttul;

the pious prince … who sustains his people in crisis, who secures their foundations in peace in the midst of the city of Babylon;

shepherd of the people, whose deeds are pleasing to the goddess Ishtar …

who proclaims truth, who guides the population properly …

who quells the rebellious …

the pious one, who prays ceaselessly for the great gods … mighty heir of Sin-muballit, eternal seed of royalty mighty king, solar disk of the city of Babylon, who spreads light over the lands of Sumer and Akkad, king who makes the four regions [north, south, east, west] obedient, favored of the goddess Ishtar, am I.

When the god Marduk commanded me to provide just ways for the people of the land (in order to attain) appropriate behavior, I established truth and justice as the declaration of the land, I enhanced the well-being of the people.

At that time:

Laws

1. If a man accuses another man and charges him with homicide but cannot bring proof against him, his accuser shall be killed. …

3. If a man comes forward to give false testimony in a case but cannot bring evidence for his accusation, if that case involves a capital offense, that man shall be killed.

4. If he comes forward to give (false) testimony for (a case whose penalty is) grain or silver, he shall be assessed the penalty for that case.

5. If a judge renders a judgment, gives a verdict, or deposits a sealed opinion, after which he reverses his judgment … they shall unseat him from his judgeship in the assembly, and he shall never again sit in judgment with the judges.

6. If a man steals valuables belonging to the god or to the palace, that man shall be killed, and also he who received the stolen goods from him shall he killed.

7. If a man should purchase silver, gold, a slave, a slave woman, an ox, a sheep, a donkey, or anything else whatsoever, from a son of a man or from a slave of a man without witnesses or a contract—or if he accepts the goods for safekeeping— that man is a thief, he shall be killed.

8. If a man steals an ox, a sheep, a donkey, a pig, or a boat—if it belongs either to the god or to the palace, he shall give thirtyfold: if it belongs to a commoner, he shall replace it tenfold; if the thief does not have anything to give, he shall be killed.

9. If a man who claims to have lost property then discovers his lost property in another man’s possession … the judges shall examine their cases, and the witnesses in whose presence the purchase was made and the witnesses who can identify the lost property shall state the facts known to them before the god, then, it is the seller who is the thief, he shall be killed. …

11. If the owner of the lost property could not produce witnesses who can identify his lost property, he is a liar, he has indeed spread malicious charges, he shall be killed. …

14. If a man should kidnap the young child of another man, he shall be killed.

15. If a man should enable a palace slave, a palace slave woman, a commoner’s slave, or a commoner’s slave woman to leave through the main city-gate, he shall be killed.

16. If a man should harbor a fugitive slave or slave woman of either the palace or of a commoner in his house and not bring him out at the herald’s public proclamation, that householder shall be killed.

17. If a man seizes a fugitive slave or slave woman in the open country and leads him back to his owner, the slave owner shall give him 2 shekels of silver.…

19. If he should detain that slave in his own house and afterward the slave is discovered in his possession, that man shall be killed.…

21. If a man breaks into a house, they shall kill him and hang him in front of that very breach.

22. If a man commits a robbery and is then seized, that man shall be killed. …

24. If a life (is lost during the robbery), the city and the governor shall weigh and deliver to his kinsmen 60 shekels of silver.

25. If a fire breaks out in a man’s house, and a man who came to help put it out covets the household furnishings belonging to the householder, and takes household furnishings belonging to the householder, that man shall be cast into that very fire.

26. If either a soldier or a fisherman who is ordered to go on a royal campaign does not go, or hires and sends a hireling as his substitute, that soldier or fisherman shall be killed: the one who informs against him shall take full legal possession of his estate. …

28. If there is either a soldier or a fisherman who is taken captive while serving in a royal fortress, and his son is able to perform the service obligation, the field and orchard shall be given to him and he shall perform his father’s service obligation. …

30. If either a soldier or a fisherman abandons his field, orchard, or house because of the service obligation and then absents himself … if he then returns and claims his field, orchard, or house, it will not be given to him: he who has taken possession of it and has performed his service obligation shall be the one to continue to perform the obligation. …

34. If either a captain or a sergeant should take a soldier’s household furnishings, oppress a soldier, hire out a soldier, deliver a soldier into the power of an influential person in a law case, or take a gift that the king gave to a soldier, that captain or sergeant shall be killed. …

37. If a man should purchase a field, orchard, or house of a soldier, fisherman, or a state tenant, his deed shall be invalidated and he shall forfeit his silver; the field, orchard, or house shall revert to its owner.

38. (Furthermore), a soldier, fisherman, or a state tenant will not assign in writing to his wife or daughter any part of a field, orchard, or house attached to his service obligation, nor will he give it to meet any outstanding obligation. …

42. If a man rents a field in tenancy but does not plant any grain, they shall charge and convict him of not performing the required work in the field, and he shall give to the owner of the field grain in accordance with his neighbor’s yield. …

44. If a man rents a previously uncultivated field for a three-year term with the intention of opening it for cultivation but he is negligent and does not open the field, in the fourth year he shall plow, hoe, and harrow the field and return it to the owner of the field; and in addition he shall measure and deliver 3,000 silas of grain per 18 ikus (of field). …

48. If a man has a debt lodged against him, and the storm-god Adad devastates his field or a flood sweeps away the crops, or there is no grain grown in the field due to insufficient water—in that year he will not repay grain to his creditor; he shall suspend performance of his contract and he will not give interest payments for that year. …

53. If a man neglects to reinforce the embankment of (the irrigation canal of) his field and does not reinforce its embankment, and then a breach opens in its embankment and allows the water to carry away the common irrigated area, the man in whose embankment the breach opened shall replace the grain whose loss he caused.

54. If he cannot replace the grain, they shall sell him and his property, and the residents of the common irrigated area whose grain crops the water carried away shall divide (the proceeds).

55. If a man opens his branch of the canal for irrigation and negligently allows the water to carry away his neighbor’s field, he shall measure and deliver grain in accordance with his neighbor’s yield. …

57. If a shepherd does not make an agreement with the owner of the field to graze sheep and goats … the owner of the field shall harvest his field and the shepherd who grazed sheep and goats on the field without the permission of the owner of the field shall give in addition 6,000 silas of grain per 18 ikus (of field) to the owner of the field. …

60. If a man gives a field to a gardener to plant as a date orchard and the gardener plants the orchard, he shall cultivate the orchard for four years; in the fifth year, the owner of the orchard and the gardener shall divide the yield in equal shares; the owner of the orchard shall select and take his share first. …

62. If he does not plant as a date orchard the field which was given to him—if it is arable land, the gardener shall measure and deliver to the owner of the field the estimated yield of the field for the years it is left fallow in accordance with his neighbor’s yield; furthermore he shall perform the required work on the field and return it to the owner of the field. …

64. If a man gives his orchard to a gardener to pollinate (the date palms), as long as the gardener is in possession of the orchard, he shall give to the owner of the orchard two thirds of the yield of the orchard, and he himself shall take one third.

65. If the gardener does not pollinate the (date palms in the) orchard and thus diminishes the yield, the gardener [shall measure and deliver] a yield for the orchard to (the owner of the orchard in accordance with) his neighbor’s yields. …

[gap]t If a merchant gives grain or silver as an interest-bearing loan, he shall take 100 silas of grain per kur as interest (= 33%); if he gives silver as an interest-bearing loan, he shall take 36 barleycorns per shekel of silver as interest (= 20&percent;).

[gap]u If a man who has an interest-bearing loan does not have silver with which to repay it, he (the merchant) shall take grain and silver in accordance with the royal edict and the interest on it at the annual rate of 60 silas per 1 kur (= 20%). …

[gap]x If a merchant gives grain or silver as an interest-bearing loan and when he gives it as an interest-bearing loan he gives the silver according to the small weight or the grain according to the small seah-measure but when he receives payment he receives the silver according to the large weight or the grain according to the large seah-measure, [that merchant] shall forfeit [anything that he gave]. …

102. If a merchant should give silver to a trading agent for an investment venture, and he incurs a loss on his journeys, he shall return silver to the merchant in the amount of the capital sum.

103. If enemy forces should make him abandon whatever goods he is transporting while on his business trip, the trading agent shall swear an oath by the god and shall be released. …

112. If a man is engaged in a trading expedition and gives silver, gold, precious stones, or any other goods to another under consignment for transportation, and the latter man … appropriates it, the owner of the consigned property shall charge and convict that man of whatever … he failed to deliver, and that man shall give to the owner … fivefold the property that had been given to him. …

117. If an obligation is outstanding against a man and he sells or gives into debt service his wife, his son, or his daughter, they shall perform service in the house of their buyer or of the one who holds them in debt service for three years; their release shall be secured in the fourth year.

118. If he should give a male or female slave into debt service, the merchant may extend the term (beyond the three years), he may sell him; there are no grounds for a claim. …

120. If a man stores his grain in another man’s house, and a loss occurs in the storage bin or the householder opens the granary and takes the grain or he completely denies receiving the grain that was stored in his house—the owner of the grain shall establish his grain before the god, and the house-holder shall give to the owner of the grain twofold the grain that he took (in storage). …

122. If a man intends to give silver, gold, or anything else to another man for safekeeping, he shall exhibit before witnesses anything which he intends to give, he shall draw up a written contract, and (in this manner) he shall give goods for safekeeping.

123. If he gives goods for safekeeping without witnesses or a written contract, and they deny that he gave anything, that case has no basis for a claim. …

127. If a man causes a finger to be pointed in accusation against … a man’s wife but cannot bring proof, they shall flog that man before the judges and they shall shave off half of his hair.

128. If a man marries a wife but does not draw up a formal contract for her, that woman is not a wife.

129. If a man’s wife should be seized lying with another male, they shall bind them and cast them into the water; if the wife’s master allows his wife to live, then the king shall allow his subject (i.e., the other male) to live.

130. If a man pins down another man’s virgin wife who is still residing in her father’s house, and they seize him lying with her, that man shall be killed; that woman shall be released.

131. If her husband accuses his own wife (of adultery), although she has not been seized lying with another male, she shall swear (to her innocence by) an oath by the god, and return to her house.

132. If a man’s wife should have a finger pointed against her in accusation involving another male, although she has not been seized lying with another male, she shall submit to the divine River Ordeal. …

134. If a man should be captured and there are not sufficient provisions in his house, his wife may enter another’s house; that woman will not be subject to any penalty. …

138. If a man intends to divorce his first-ranking wife who did not bear him children, he shall give her silver as much as was her bridewealth and restore to her the dowry that she brought from her father’s house, and he shall divorce her.

139. If there is no bridewealth, he shall give her 60 shekels of silver as a divorce settlement.

140. If he is a commoner, he shall give her 20 shekels of silver.

141. If the wife of a man who is residing in the man’s house should decide to leave, and she appropriates goods, squanders her household possessions, or disparages her husband, they shall charge and convict her; and if her husband should declare his intention to divorce her, then he shall divorce her; neither her travel expenses, nor her divorce settlement, nor anything else shall be given to her. If her husband should declare his intention to not divorce her, then her husband may marry another woman and that (first) woman shall reside in her husband’s house as a slave woman.

142. If a woman repudiates her husband, and declares, “You will not have marital relations with me”—her circumstances shall be investigated by the authorities of her city quarter, and if she is circumspect and without fault, but her husband is wayward and disparages her greatly that woman will not be subject to any penalty; she shall take her dowry and she shall depart for her father’s house.

143. If she is not circumspect but is wayward, squanders her household possessions, and disparages her husband, they shall cast that woman into the water. …

148. It a man marries a woman, and later la’bum-disease seizes her and he decides to marry another woman, he may marry, he will not divorce his wife whom la’bum-disease seized; she shall reside in quarters he constructs and he shall continue to support her as long as she lives. …

150. If a man awards to his wife a field, orchard, house, or movable property, and makes out a sealed document for her, after her husband’s death her children will not bring claim against her; the mother shall give her estate to whichever of her children she loves, but she will not give it to an outsider. …

153 If a man’s wife has her husband killed on account of (her relationship with) another male, they shall impale that woman.

154. If a man should carnally know his daughter, they shall banish that man from the city. …

156. If a man selects a bride for his son and his son does not yet carnally know her, and he himself then lies with her, he shall weigh and deliver to her 30 shekels of silver; moreover, he shall restore to her whatever she brought from her father’s house, and a husband of her choice shall marry her.

157. If a man, after his father’s death, should lie with his mother, they shall burn them both.

158. If a man, after his father’s death, should be discovered in the lap of his (the father’s) principal wife who had borne children, that man shall be disinherited from the paternal estate.

159. If a man who has the ceremonial marriage presentation brought to the house of his father-in-law, and who gives the bridewealth, should have his attention diverted to another woman and declare to his father-in-law, “I will not marry your daughter,” the father of the daughter shall take full legal possession of whatever had been brought to him. …

162. If a man marries a wife, she bears him children, and that woman then goes to her fate, her father shall have no claim to her dowry; her dowry belongs only to her children. …

166. If a man provides wives for his eligible sons but does not provide a wife for his youngest son, when the brothers divide the estate after the father goes to his fate, they shall establish the silver value of the bridewealth for their young unmarried brother from the property of the paternal estate, in addition to his inheritance share, and thereby enable him to obtain a wife. …

168. If a man should decide to disinherit his son and declares to the judges, “I will disinherit my son,” the judges shall investigate his case and if the son is not guilty of a grave offense deserving the penalty of disinheritance, the father may not disinherit his son.

169. If he should be guilty of a grave offense deserving the penalty of disinheritance by his father, they shall pardon him for his first one; if he should commit a grave offense a second time, the father may disinherit his son. …

175. If a slave of the palace or a slave of a commoner marries a woman of the awilu-class and she then bears children, the owner of the slave will have no claims of slavery against the children of the woman of the awilu-class. …

177. If a widow whose children are still young should decide to enter another’s house, she will not enter without (the prior approval of) the judges. When she enters another’s house, the judges shall investigate the estate of her former husband, and they shall entrust the estate of her former husband to her later husband and to that woman, and they shall have them record a tablet (inventorying the estate). They shall safeguard the estate and they shall raise the young children; they will not sell the household goods. Any buyer who buys the household goods of the children of a widow shall forfeit his silver; the property shall revert to its owner. …

180. If a father does not award a dowry to his daughter who is a cloistered naditu or a sekretu, after the father goes to his fate, she shall have a share of the property of the paternal estate comparable in value to that of one heir; as long as she lives she shall enjoy its use; her estate belongs only to her brothers. …

185. If a man takes in adoption a young child at birth and then rears him, that rearling will not be reclaimed. …

188. If a craftsman takes a young child to rear and then teaches him his craft, he will not be reclaimed. …

190. If a man should not reckon the young child whom he took and raised in adoption as equal with his children, that rearling shall return to his father’s house. …

192. If the child of (i.e., reared by) a courtier or the child of (i.e., reared by) a sekretu should say to the father who raised him or to the mother who raised him, “You are not my father,” or “You are not my mother,” they shall cut out his tongue.

193. If the child of (i.e., reared by) a courtier or the child of (i.e., reared by) a sekretu identifies with his father’s house and repudiates the father who raised him or the mother who raised him and departs for his father’s house, they shall pluck out his eye.

194. If a man gives his son to a wet nurse and that child then dies while in the care of the wet nurse, and the wet nurse then contracts for another child without the knowledge of his father and mother, they shall charge and convict her, and, because she contracted for another child without the consent of his father and mother, they shall cut off her breast.

195. If a child should strike his father, they shall cut off his hand.

196. If an awilu should blind the eye of another awilu, they shall blind his eye.

197. If he should break the bone of another awilu, they shall break his bone.

198. If he should blind the eye of a commoner or break the bone of a commoner, he shall weigh and deliver 60 shekels of silver.

199. If he should blind the eye of an awilu’s slave or break the bone of an awilu’s slave, he shall weigh and deliver one-half of his value (in silver).

200. If an awilu should knock out the tooth of another awilu of his own rank, they shall knock out his tooth.

201. If he should knock out the tooth of a commoner, he shall weigh and deliver 20 shekels of silver.

202. If an awilu should strike the cheek of an awilu who is of status higher than his own, he shall be flogged in the public assembly with 60 stripes of an ox whip.

203. If a member of the awilu-class should strike the cheek of another member of the awilu-class who is his equal, he shall weigh and deliver 60 shekels of silver.

204. If a commoner should strike the cheek of another commoner, he shall weigh and deliver 10 shekels of silver.

205. If an awilu’s slave should strike the cheek of a member of the awilu-class, they shall cut off his ear. …

209. If an awilu strikes a woman of the awilu-class and thereby causes her to miscarry her fetus, he shall weigh and deliver 10 shekels of silver for her fetus.

210. If that woman should die, they shall kill his daughter.

211. If he should cause a woman of the commoner-class to miscarry her fetus by the beating, he shall weigh and deliver 5 shekels of silver.

212. If that woman should die, he shall weigh and deliver 30 shekels of silver.

213. If he strikes an awilu’s slave woman and thereby causes her to miscarry her fetus, he shall weigh and deliver 2 shekels of silver.

214. If that slave woman should die, he shall weigh and deliver 20 shekels of silver.

215. If a physician performs major surgery with a bronze lancet upon an awilu and thus heals the awilu, or opens an awilu’s temple with a bronze lancet and thus heals the awilu’s eye, he shall take 10 shekels of silver (as his fee).

216. If he (the patient) is a member of the commoner-class, he shall take 5 shekels of silver (as his fee).

217. If he (the patient) is an awilu’s slave, the slave’s master shall give to the physician 2 shekels of silver.

218. If a physician performs major surgery with a bronze lancet upon an awilu and thus causes the awilu’s death, or opens an awilu’s temple with a bronze lancet and thus blinds the awilu’s eye, they shall cut off his hand.

219. If a physician performs major surgery with a bronze lancet upon a slave of a commoner and thus causes the slave’s death, he shall replace the slave with a slave of comparable value.

220. If he opens his (the commoner’s slave’s) temple with a bronze lancet and thus blinds his eye, he shall weigh and deliver silver equal to half his value. …

226. If a barber shaves off the slave-hairlock of a slave not belonging to him without the consent of the slave’s owner, they shall cut off that barber’s hand.

227. If a man misinforms a barber so that he then shaves off the slave-hairlock of a slave not belonging to him, they shall kill that man and hang him in his own doorway; the barber shall swear, “I did not knowingly shave it off,” and he shall be released.

228. If a builder constructs a house for a man to his satisfaction, he shall give him 2 shekels of silver for each sar of house as his compensation.

229. If a builder constructs a house for a man but does not make his work sound, and the house that he constructs collapses and causes the death of the householder, that builder shall be killed.

230. If it should cause the death of a son of the householder, they shall kill a son of that builder.

231. If it should cause the death of a slave of the householder, he shall give to the householder a slave of comparable value for the slave.

232. If it should cause the loss of property, he shall replace anything that is lost; moreover, because he did not make sound the house which he constructed and it collapsed, he shall construct (anew) the house which collapsed at his own expense. …

234. If a boatman caulks a boat of 60-kur capacity for a man, he shall give him 2 shekels of silver as his compensation. …

236. If a man gives his boat to a boatman for hire, and the boatman is negligent and causes the boat to sink or to become lost, the boatman shall replace the boat for the owner of the boat. …

239. If a man hires a boatman, he shall give him 1,800 silas of grain per year. …

241. If a man should distrain an ox, he shall weigh and deliver 20 shekels of silver.

242/243. If a man rents it for one year, he shall give to its owner 1,200 silas of grain as the hire of an ox for the rear (of the team), and 900 silas of grain as the hire of an ox for the middle (of the team).

244. If a man rents an ox or a donkey and a lion kills it in the open country, it is the owner’s loss.

245. If a man rents an ox and causes its death either by negligence or by physical abuse, he shall replace the ox with an ox of comparable value for the owner of the ox. …

249. If a man rents an ox, and a god strikes it down dead, the man who rented the ox shall swear an oath by the god and he shall be released.

250. If an ox gores to death a man while it is passing through the streets, that case has no basis for a claim.

251. If a man’s ox is a known gorer, and the authorities of his city quarter notify him that it is a known gorer, but he does not blunt(?) its horns or control his ox, and that ox gores to death a member of the awilu-class, he (the owner) shall give 30 shekels of silver.

252. If it is a man’s slave (who is fatally gored), he shall give 20 shekels of silver.

253. If a man hires another man to care for his field, that is, he entrusts to him the stored grain, hands over to him care of the cattle, and contracts with him for the cultivation of the field—if that man steals the seed or fodder and it is then discovered in his possession, they shall cut off his hand. …

257. If a man hires an agricultural laborer, he shall give him 2,400 silas of grain per year.

258. If a man hires an ox driver, he shall give him 1,800 silas of grain per year. …

261. If a man hires a herdsman to herd the cattle or the sheep and goats, he shall give him 2,400 silas of grain per year. …

264. If a shepherd, to whom cattle or sheep and goats were given for shepherding, is in receipt of his complete hire to his satisfaction, then allows the number of cattle to decrease, or the number of sheep and goats to decrease, or the number of offspring to diminish, he shall give for the (loss of) offspring and by-products in accordance with the terms of his contract. …

266. If, in the [protective] enclosure, an epidemic should break out or a lion make a kill, the shepherd shall clear himself before the god, and the owner of the enclosure shall accept responsibility for him for the loss sustained in the enclosure. …

268. If a man rents an ox for threshing, 20 silas of grain is its hire.

269. If he rents a donkey for threshing, 10 silas of grain is its hire.

270. If he rents a goat for threshing, 1 sila of grain is its hire.

271. If a man rents cattle, a wagon, and its driver, he shall give 180 silas of grain per day.

272. If a man rents only the wagon, he shall give 40 silas of grain per day.

273. If a man hires a hireling, he shall give 6 barleycorns of silver per day from the beginning of the year until (the end of) the fifth month and 5 barleycorns of silver per day from the sixth month until the end of the year. …

276. If a man rents a boat for traveling upstream, he shall give 2½ barleycorns of silver as its hire per day. …

282. If a slave should declare to his master. “You are not my master,” he (the master) shall bring charge and proof against him that he is indeed his slave, and his master shall cut off his ear.

Epilogue

These are the just decisions which Hammurabi, the able king, has established and thereby has directed the land along the course of truth and the correct way of life.

I am Hammurabi, noble king. I have not been careless or negligent toward humankind, granted to my care by the god Enlil, and with whose shepherding the god Marduk charged me. I have sought for them peaceful places, I removed serious difficulties, I spread light over them. With the mighty weapon which the gods Zababa and Ishtar bestowed upon me, with the wisdom which the god Ea allotted to me, with the ability which the god Marduk gave me, I annihilated enemies everywhere, I put an end to wars, I enhanced the well-being of the land, I made the people of all settlements lie in safe pastures, I did not tolerate anyone intimidating them. The great gods having chosen me, I am indeed the shepherd who brings peace, whose scepter is just. My benevolent shade is spread over my city. I held the people of the lands of Sumer and Akkad safely on my lap. They prospered under my protective spirit, I maintained them in peace, with my skillful wisdom I sheltered them.

In order that the mighty not wrong the weak, to provide just ways for the waif and the widow, I have inscribed my precious pronouncements upon my stela and set it up before the statue of me, the king of justice, in the city of Babylon, the city which the gods Anu and Enlil have elevated, within the Esagil, the temple whose foundations are fixed as are heaven and earth, in order to render the judgments of the land, to give the verdicts of the land, and to provide just ways for the wronged.

I am the king preeminent among kings. My pronouncements are choice, my ability is unrivaled. By the command of the god Shamash, the great judge of heaven and earth, may my justice prevail in the land. By the order of the god Marduk, my lord, may my engraved image not be confronted by someone who would remove it. May my name always be remembered favorably in the Esagil temple which I love.

Let any wronged man who has a lawsuit come before the statue of me, the king of justice, and let him have my inscribed stela read aloud to him, thus may he hear my precious pronouncements and let my stela reveal the lawsuit for him; may he examine his case, may he calm his (troubled) heart, (and may he praise me), saying:

“Hammurabi, the lord, who is like a father and begetter to his people, submitted himself to the command of the god Marduk, his lord, and achieved victory for the god Marduk everywhere. He gladdened the heart of the god Marduk, his lord and he secured the eternal well-being of the people and provided just ways for the land.” …

May any king who will appear in the land in the future, at any time, observe the pronouncements of justice that I inscribed upon my stela. May he not alter the judgments that I rendered and the verdicts that I gave, not remove my engraved image. If that man has discernment, and is capable of providing just ways for his land, may he heed the pronouncements I have inscribed upon my stela, may that stela reveal for him the traditions, the proper conduct, the judgments of the land that I rendered, the verdicts of the land that I gave and may he, too, provide just ways for all humankind in his care. …

I am Hammurabi, king of justice, to whom the god Shamash has granted (insight into) the truth. My pronouncements are choice and my achievements are unrivalled. … If that man (a future ruler) heeds my pronouncements … and does not reject my judgments … then may the god Shamash lengthen his reign, just as (he has done) for me, the king of justice, and so may he shepherd his people with justice.

(But) should that man not heed my pronouncements, which I have inscribed upon my stela, and should he slight my curses and not fear the curses of the gods, and thus overturn the judgments that I rendered, change my pronouncements, alter my engraved image, erase my inscribed name and inscribe his own name (in its place)—or should he, because of fear of these curses, have someone else do so—that man, whether he is a king, a lord, or a governor, or any person at all, may the great god Anu, father of the gods, who has proclaimed my reign, deprive him of the sheen of royalty, smash his scepter, and curse his destiny.

May the god Enlil, the lord, who determines destinies, whose utterance cannot be countermanded, who magnifies my kingship, incite against him even in his own residence disorder that cannot be quelled and a rebellion that will result in his obliteration; may he cast as his fate a reign of groaning, of few days, of years of famine, of darkness without illumination, and of sudden death; may he declare with his venerable speech the obliteration of his city, the dispersion of his people, the supplanting of his dynasty, and the blotting out of his name and his memory from the land.

May the goddess Ninlil, the great mother … may she induce the divine king Enlil to pronounce the destruction of his land, the obliteration of his people, and the spilling of his life force like water.

May the god Ea … the sage among the gods, all-knowing … may he dam up his rivers at the source; may he not allow any life-sustaining grain in his land.

May the god Shamash, the great judge of heaven and earth, who provides just ways for all living creatures … may he not render his judgments, may he confuse his path … may he uproot him from among the living above and make his ghost thirst for water below in the nether world.

May the god Sin … impose upon him an onerous punishment, a great penalty for him, which will not depart from his body; … may he unveil before him a contender for the kingship; may he decree for him a life that is no better than death.

May the god Adad, lord of abundance, the canal-inspector of heaven and earth … deprive him of the benefits of rain from heaven and flood from the springs, and may he obliterate his land through destitution and famine. …

May the god Zababa, the great warrior, … who travels at my right side, smash his weapon upon the field of battle; may he turn day into night for him, and make his enemy triumph over him.

May the goddess Ishtar, mistress of battle and warfare, who bares my weapon, … who loves my reign, curse his kingship with her angry heart and great fury … strike down his warriors, drench the earth with their blood, make a heap of the corpses of his soldiers upon the plain, and may she show his soldiers no mercy; as for him, may she deliver him into the hand of his enemies. …

May the goddess Nintu, august mistress of the lands, the mother, my creator, deprive him of an heir and give him no offspring; may she not allow a human child to be born among his people.…

May the great gods of heaven and earth, … the protective spirit of the temple, the very brickwork of the Ebabbar temple, curse that one his seed, his land, his troops, his people, and his army with a terrible curse.

May the god Enlil, whose command cannot be countermanded, curse him with these curses and may they swiftly overtake him.