The Oldest Code of Laws in the World by King of Babylonia Hammurabi (ebook reader for pc and android .txt) 📕

§ 258.  If a man has hired an ox-driver, he shall give him six gur of corn per year.

§ 259.  If a man has stolen a watering machine from the meadow, he shall give five shekels of silver to the owner of the watering machine.

§ 260.  If he has stolen a watering bucket or a harrow, he shall pay three shekels of silver.

§ 261.  If a man has hired a herdsman for the cows or a shepherd for the sheep, he shall give him eight gur of corn per annum.

§ 262.  If a man, ox, or sheep to [this section is defaced].

§ 263.  If he has caused an ox or sheep which was given him to be lost, ox for ox, sheep for sheep, he shall render to their owner.

§ 264.  If a herdsman who has had cows or sheep given him to shepherd, has received his hire, whatever was agreed, and his heart was contented, has diminished the cows, diminished the sheep, lessened the offspring, he shall give offspring and produce according to the tenour of his bonds.

§ 265.  If a shepherd to whom cows and sheep have been given him to breed, has falsified and changed their price, or has sold them, one shall put him to account, and he shall render cows and sheep to their owner tenfold what he has stolen.

§ 266.  If in a sheepfold a stroke of God has taken place or a lion has killed, the shepherd shall purge himself before God, and the accident to the fold the owner of the fold shall face it.

§ 267.  If a shepherd has been careless and in a sheepfold caused a loss to take place, the shepherd shall make good the fault of the loss which he has caused to be in the fold and shall pay cows or sheep and shall give to their owner.

§ 268.  If a man has hired an ox, for threshing, twenty ka of corn is its hire.

§ 269.  If he has hired an ass, for threshing, ten ka of corn is its hire.

§ 270.  If he has hired a calf (goat?), for threshing, one ka of corn is its hire.

§ 271.  If a man has hired oxen, a wagon, and its driver, he shall give one hundred and eighty ka of corn per diem.

§ 272.  If a man has hired a wagon by itself, he shall give forty ka of corn per diem.

§ 273.  If a man has hired a labourer, from the beginning of the year till the fifth month, he shall give six še of silver per diem; from the sixth month to the end of the year, he shall give five še of silver per diem.

§ 274.  If a man shall hire an artisan—

(a) the hire of a . . . five še of silver

(b) the hire of a brickmaker five še of silver

(c) the hire of a tailor . five še of silver

(d) the hire of a stone-cutter . še of silver

(e) the hire of a . . . še of silver

(f) the hire of a . . . še of silver

(g) the hire of a carpenter four še of silver

(h) the hire of a . . . four še of silver

(i) the hire of a . . . še of silver

(j) the hire of a builder. . . še of silver per diem he shall give.

§ 275.  If a man has hired a (boat?) per diem, her hire is three še of silver.

§ 276.  If a man has hired a fast ship, he shall give two and a half še of silver per diem as her hire.

§ 277.  If a man has hired a ship of sixty gur, he shall give one-sixth of a shekel of silver per diem as her hire.

§ 278.  If a man has bought a manservant or a maidservant, and he has not fulfilled his month and the bennu sickness has fallen upon him, he shall return him to the seller, and the buyer shall take the money he paid.

§ 279.  If a man has bought a manservant or a maidservant and has a complaint, his seller shall answer the complaint.

§ 280.  If a man has bought in a foreign land the manservant or the maidservant of a man, when he has come into the land, and the owner of the manservant or the maidservant has recognised his manservant or his maidservant, if the manservant or maidservant are natives without price he shall grant them their freedom.

§ 281.  If they are natives of another land the buyer shall tell out before God the money he paid, and the owner of the manservant or the maidservant shall give to the merchant the money he paid, and shall recover his manservant or his maidservant.

§ 282.  If a slave has said to his master ‘Thou art not my master,’ as his slave one shall put him to account and his master shall cut off his ear.

* * * * *

The judgements of righteousness which Hammurabi the mighty king confirmed and caused the land to take a sure guidance and a gracious rule.

The following three sections, which are known to belong to the Code from copies made for an Assyrian king in the seventh century b.c., are given here for the sake of completeness.  They obviously come within the space once occupied by the five erased columns.

§ X.  If a man has taken money from a merchant and has given a plantation of dates to the merchant, has said to him, ‘The dates that are in my plantation take for thy money,’ that merchant shall not agree, the dates that are in the plantation the owner of the plantation shall take, and he shall answer to the merchant for the money and its interests according to the tenour of his bond.  The dates that are over, which are in the plantation, the owner of the plantation shall take forsooth.

§ Y. . . . the man dwelling (in the house) has given to the owner (of the house) the money of its rent in full for the year, the owner of the house has ordered the dweller to go out when his days are not full, the owner of the house, because he has ordered the dweller to leave when his days are not full, (shall give) of the money which the dweller gave him. . . .

§ Z.  If a man has to pay, in money or corn, but has not money or corn to pay with, but has goods, whatever is in his hands, before witnesses, according to what he has brought, he shall give to his merchant.  The merchant shall not object, he shall receive it.

The numbers refer to the sections of the Code.

Abatement, of rent, for loss of crop, 45, 46.
   of interest, 48.

Accidental loss, by storm or deluge, falls on tenant, 45.
   shared by landlord, if before rent is paid, 46.
   by drought, storm, or deluge, postpones payment of debt, 48.

Adjournment, for production of witnesses, 13.
      not to exceed six months, 13.

Adoption, of natural son, 185.
      of child of living parents, 186.
      parents may object, 186.
      votary or palace official cannot object, 187.
   by artisan, 188.
      no one can reclaim child, if he has been taught handicraft, 188.
      otherwise can be reclaimed, 189.
      adopted son must be formally acknowledged, 190.
      if not, returns to real parents on death of adoptive father, 190.
      adopted son cannot be cut off without legal process, 191.
      has one-third child’s share, 191.
      but no part of estate, 191.
      repudiation by adopted son severely punished, 192 ff.

Adultery, 129.
   penalty, drowning, 129.

Agent, relation to principal or merchant—
   must keep accounts, 100.
      of money received, 100.
      of interest due, 100.
   if unsuccessful, repays capital only, 101.
   if a loser, repays capital in full, 102.
   if robbed, can be excused payment, 103.
   must keep account of goods, 104.
   stating money value, 104.
   take inventory, 104.
   give receipt, 104.
   pays threefold for his defaults, 106.

Allotment, to ganger, constable, or tributary, 30.  See Benefice.

Allowances, to divorced wife, 137.
   usufruct of field, garden, and goods.

Alteration of date for repayment, 48.
   called ‘wetting tablet,’ 48.

Approving lease, 44.  See Lease.

Assault, of gentleman by gentleman, 202, 203.
   in a quarrel, 206.
   of poor man by poor man, 204.
   of gentleman by slave, 205.
   of pregnant woman, causing miscarriage—
      gentle woman, 209.
      poor woman, 211.
      slave, 213.
   causing her death—
      gentle woman, 210.
      poor woman, 212.
      slave, 214.
   See under Fines.

Assessment of damages—
   by sheep to growing crops, 57.
   ,, to ripe crops, 58.
   for cutting down tree in orchard, 59.
   for not carrying out terms of lease, 42, 44.
   for assault.  See Fines.
   for carelessness.  See Neglect.
   for culpable lack of skill.  See Doctor.

Assignment for debt—
   of bare field, 49.
   of corn field, 50.
   of date plantation, X.
   of crop, Y.
   of wife, child, or slave, to work off debt, 115.

Average yield, assessed damages, 42, 43, 44, 55, 62, 65.

Backbiting, 161.

Bailiff.  See Reeve, Ganger, Constable, Benefice.

Bailment, without witness or deed—
   from domestic inferior=theft, 7.

Banishment.  See Exile.

Bearing sentence sought to be obtained.  See Retaliation.

Benefice, the land, house, garden, and stock—
   assigned by king to ganger, constable, or tributary, 30.
   inalienable, 32, 36, 37.
   sale, or purchase, forbidden, 35.
   price paid forfeited, 35.
   not to be exchanged, 41.
   not to be devised to females, 38.
   may be deputed, 27.
   hereditary, 28.
   forfeited, by disuse, 30.
   may not be pledged, 38.
   saleable to other official (?),