The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Oldest Code of Laws in the World, by
Hammurabi, King of Babylon, Translated by C. H. W. Johns

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Oldest Code of Laws in the World
The code of laws promulgated by Hammurabi, King of Babylon
B.C. 2285-2242

Author: Hammurabi, King of Babylon

Release Date: November 25, 2005 [eBook #17150]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLDEST CODE OF LAWS IN THE WORLD***

Transcribed from the 1903 T. & T. Clark edition by David Price, email
ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

THE OLDEST CODE OF LAWS IN THE WORLD

THE CODE OF LAWS PROMULGATED BY
HAMMURABI, KING OF BABYLON
B.C. 2285-2242

_TRANSLATED_

BY

C. H. W. JOHNS, M.A.

LECTURER IN ASSYRIOLOGY, QUEENS' COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
AUTHOR OF "ASSYRIAN DEEDS AND DOCUMENTS"
"AN ASSYRIAN DOOMSDAY BOOK"

EDINBURGH
T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET
1903

PRINTED BY
MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED

FOR

T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH

LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO. LIMITED
NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

FIRST IMPRESSION . . . _February_ 1903.

SECOND IMPRESSION . . . _March_ 1903.

THIRD IMPRESSION . . . _May_ 1903.

FOURTH IMPRESSION . . . _June_ 1903.

"The discovery and decipherment of this Code is the greatest event in
Biblical Archaeology for many a day. A translation of the Code, done by
Mr. Johns of Queens' College, Cambridge, the highest living authority on
this department of study, has just been published by Messrs. T. & T.
Clark in a cheap and attractive booklet. Winckler says it is the most
important Babylonian record which has thus far been brought to
light."--_The Expository Times_.

INTRODUCTION

The Code of Hammurabi is one of the most important monuments in the
history of the human race. Containing as it does the laws which were
enacted by a king of Babylonia in the third millennium B.C., whose rule
extended over the whole of Mesopotamia from the mouths of the rivers
Tigris and Euphrates to the Mediterranean coast, we must regard it with
interest. But when we reflect that the ancient Hebrew tradition ascribed
the migrati