HAMMURABI'S LAWS This page intentionally left blank HAMMURABI'S LAWS Text, Translation and Glossary M.E.J. RICHARDSON T&.T CLARK INTERNATIONAL A Continuum imprint LONDON • NEW YORK HORA FUGIT STAT IUS Published by T&T Clark International A Continuum imprint The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX 15 East 26th Street, Suite 1703, New York, NY 10010 www. tand tclark. com Copyright © 2000 Sheffield Academic Press First published 2000 in The Biblical Seminar/Semitic Texts and Studies series This edition published 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0567081583 (paperback) Typeset by Sheffield Academic Press Printed on acid-free paper in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham CONTENTS Preface 7 Abbreviations 9 INTRODUCTION 11 OUTLINE CONTENTS OF HAMMURABI'S LAWS 25 THE LAWS: TEXT AND TRANSLATION 28 GLOSSARY 136 PROPER NAMES, NUMERALS AND UNITS OF MEASUREMENT 330 ROOTS AND STEMS 341 VERBAL FORMS 354 ENGLISH-AKKADIAN INDEX 383 AKKADIAN-ENGLISH INDEX 396 This page intentionally left blank PREFACE This book has its origin long ago when I first began teaching Akkadian at the University of Manchester. I soon realized that my students, as well as most of the others who were studying elsewhere, could not easily find for themselves the essential meaning of a given word in a given passage of Hammurabi's laws, the text that is used as the standard introduction to Akkadian in most of the world's academic institutions where the language is taught. To compare any given occurrence of a word with others elsewhere in the text was, to say the least, tedious. In other ancient Semitic lan- guages the problem is not so great, because handy dictionaries and concordances are readily available. Therefore, like many other teachers, I encouraged my students to make their own simple word lists and cross-reference tables, which would serve them well for later advanced searching in the prestigious multi-volume Akkadian dictionaries. But the more I talked with colleagues the more I realized that not only students of Akkadian but also biblical scholars and ancient historians are very interested in the actual words that are used in these laws, in order to see how those words reflect the basic concept of good behaviour in a civilized community. To what extent the laws were observed we shall probably never really know, but to have had them set out as a god-given ideal standard means that we can begin to draw some conclusions about the relationship between faith and works in Mesopotamian society at the beginning of the second millennium BCE. And then there was the question of the later manuscripts, which showed that at various times and in various places ancient scribes had copied out parts of the law, apparently not because they were dealing with a legal problem but because for many, many centuries after the glory of Old Babylon had departed it was considered worthwhile to preserve a knowledge of the ancient laws of the land. Such a veneration of texts like this has clear parallels in later Semitic cultures. My own word list began to expand to cover not just the parts of the 8 Hammurabi's Laws: Text, Translation and Glossary text prescribed by the University syllabus but all the laws, and the prologue and the epilogue, and the major variant readings, without which there can be no real understanding of the high value placed on the content of the laws. I had hoped that my notes would be ready to be published while I was still teaching, but with one thing and another, that could not happen. Reading through the work as a whole now that I am retired, I have become aware of how easy it is for inconsistencies to find their way into writing that has been through so many stages of partial revision. I have tried to iron them out, and do hope that any creases that remain will not prove annoying. In these last stages of preparation I have become more and more aware of how much I owe to those who first taught me the discipline of cuneiform studies, and also to those who have attended my classes who raised questions demanding disciplined answers. They know who they are and that my thanks are heartfelt. I have also been aware of the constant love and support and tolerance of my family; they must have thought for many a year that the piles of notes on my desk would never be compressed between hard covers. Special thanks are due to the Sheffield Academic Press for agreeing to take on the responsibility of publishing what I know was a difficult manuscript, and particularly to Professor Clines, who requested Profes- sor Healey to include it in the Semitic Studies Series. Current affairs have clouded over the earlier long years of cordial diplomatic relations between Britain and Iraq, and it now becomes harder and harder to see the light. So it is perhaps appropriate to recall the remark of the French revolutionary Robespierre, when he wrote, 'La volonte g6n£rale gouverne la societe, comme la volonte particuliere gouverne chaque individu iso!6.' Mervyn Richardson Leiden, The Netherlands 1 March 2000 ABBREVIATIONS AHw Wolfram von Soden, Akkadisches Handworterbuch (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1965-81; Fascicules 1-16). ANET James B. Pritchard (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1950) BAL Rykle Borger, Babylonische-Assyrische Lesestucke (Analecta Orientalia, 54; Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 2nd edn, 1979). BL G.R. Driver and J.C. Miles, The Babylonian Laws, Edited with Translation and Commentary (2 vols.; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952-55). CAD Chicago University (The Oriental Institute), The Assyrian Dictionary (Chicago: The Oriental Institute). The first volume published was vol. VI (H) in 1956, since when others have been published at irregular intervals. Vol. I (A/1) appeared in 1964, and most recently vol. XVII/iii (S/iii) has appeared (1992). It is now almost complete. Caplice R. Caplice (with the assistance of D. Snell), Introduction to Akkadian (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 3rd edn, 1988). Considerably modified from the first edition, 1980. CH Codex Hammurabi. The conventional abbreviation in English to refer to the text of Hammurabi's Laws. Finet A. Finet, Le code d'Hammurapi (Paris: Cerf, 1973). Finkelstein J.J. Finkelstein, 'The Hamurapi Law Tablet BE xxxi: 22', Revue d'Assyriologie 63 (1969), 20. Fish T. Fish, Letters of the First Babylonian Dynasty in the John Rylands Library, Manchester (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1936). Meek Theophile J. Meek, The Code of Hammurabi', in James B. Pritchard (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1950), pp. 163-80; see also 3rd edn (1969). Roth Martha T. Roth, Law Collections from Mespotamia and Asia Minor (SBL Writings from the Ancient World Series, 6; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 2nd edn, 1997); in particular Chapter 8, pp. 71-142, 'Laws of Hammurabi'; this chapter is unchanged from the first edition (1995).