Hammurabi’s Code contains 282 laws, and the full Hammurabi laws list is organized by subject rather than numbered sequence, moving from courtroom procedure through property, farming, family, injury, slavery, and professional work. Each entry follows the same “if this happens, then this is the penalty” pattern, written in Akkadian cuneiform on a basalt stele carved during Hammurabi’s reign from roughly 1792 to 1750 BCE.1Encyclopedia Britannica. Hammurabi The rules were grouped so a judge could find related precedents together, and they were framed by a prologue claiming divine authority and an epilogue cursing anyone who altered them.2Yale Law School Avalon Project. The Code of Hammurabi
One thing to keep in mind before reading the list: penalties in the code depend on the social class of the people involved. Babylonian law recognized the awilum (upper-class citizens), the mushkenum (commoners), and the wardum (slaves), and the same injury could produce very different consequences depending on who did what to whom.
Laws 1–5: False Accusations and Judges
The code opens with the integrity of the legal process. Law 1 imposes the death penalty on anyone who accuses another of wrongdoing but cannot prove it. Law 3 extends this to formal proceedings: bringing a false capital charge before the elders is punished by death. For lesser accusations, the false accuser pays whatever fine the case would have produced.2Yale Law School Avalon Project. The Code of Hammurabi
Law 2 covers cases where evidence ran out. The accused could be sent to the river for trial by ordeal. Sinking meant guilt, and the accuser took the accused’s house; surviving meant innocence, and the accuser was put to death while the accused claimed the accuser’s property. Law 5 turns the same severity on judges. A judge who issued a ruling and later proved to have erred through his own fault paid twelve times the original fine and lost his seat on the bench permanently.2Yale Law School Avalon Project. The Code of Hammurabi
Laws 6–25 and 108–111: Property, Trade, and Taverns
Laws 7 through 12 cover property transactions. Buying anything from a minor or a slave without proper authorization counted as theft and carried the death penalty. In disputed ownership cases, both buyer and seller had to produce witnesses, and the losing party in such a dispute could be executed.3Online Library of Liberty. The Code of Hammurabi Secret transactions had no legal standing at all.
Interest rates were capped. Lenders could charge up to 33⅓ percent on grain loans and 20 percent on silver loans.4History Department at Hanover College. Hammurabis Code
Taverns had their own rules. Law 108 required a tavern keeper who overcharged customers (by taking silver instead of the correct grain equivalent) to be thrown into the water. Law 109 obligated tavern keepers to report conspirators meeting on their premises, on pain of death. Law 110 declared that a priestess who entered a tavern to drink would be burned alive.2Yale Law School Avalon Project. The Code of Hammurabi
Laws 42–65: Farming and Debt Relief
Because the Babylonian economy ran on agriculture, several laws addressed what happened when crops failed or fields were mismanaged. Law 48 gave debt relief to farmers hit by disaster: if a storm or drought destroyed the harvest, the borrower owed no interest for that year.4History Department at Hanover College. Hammurabis Code
Negligence got no such protection. Law 55 required anyone who opened an irrigation channel carelessly and flooded a neighbor’s field to compensate that neighbor with grain equal to what the ruined crop would have produced.5eHammurabi. Hammurabis Law Code – Law 55 Farmers who let their fields go entirely untended faced similar financial penalties, since neglect could bring pests or weeds onto surrounding plots.
Laws 128–195: Marriage, Divorce, and Widows
Law 128 set the foundation: no marriage was legally valid without a written contract. A woman taken as a wife without written terms was not, in the eyes of the law, a wife.6eHammurabi. Hammurabis Law Code – Law 128
Adultery was treated harshly. Under Law 129, a wife caught with another man could be bound with him and thrown into the water, though the husband could pardon his wife and the king could pardon the other party.7Hanover College History Department. Hammurabis Code of Laws
Law 142 gave a wife a narrow route to divorce. If she could prove her husband had neglected or degraded her, and an inquiry cleared her of fault, she could take her dowry and return to her father’s household.8The Web Site of Professor Paul Brians. The Code of Hammurabi 18th Century BCE When a husband initiated the divorce, the financial rules shifted with the presence of children. A divorced wife with children kept custody and received income from fields or gardens to raise them. A divorced wife without children got her dowry back plus a payment equal to the original bride price.
Widows also had protections. A widow who chose not to remarry kept her dowry along with any property her husband had deeded to her during the marriage. If she remarried with judicial approval, a judge inventoried the deceased husband’s estate and placed it in trust for the children.
Laws 196–214: Injury and Social Class
This is the section that gave the code its famous “eye for an eye” reputation. Law 196 states that anyone who destroys another person’s eye has his own eye destroyed. Law 197 applies the same logic to broken bones, and Law 200 to teeth.2Yale Law School Avalon Project. The Code of Hammurabi
But that principle only ran between social equals. Law 198 says that if an upper-class person destroys the eye of a freed man or commoner, the punishment drops from physical retaliation to a payment of one gold mina. Law 199 drops it further for a slave: the offender pays the slave’s owner half the slave’s value.2Yale Law School Avalon Project. The Code of Hammurabi The injury did not determine the punishment; the victim’s rank did.
Laws 15–16 and 278–282: Slavery
Slavery was a regulated institution. Laws 15 and 16 imposed the death penalty on anyone who helped a palace or government slave escape or who sheltered a fugitive slave.4History Department at Hanover College. Hammurabis Code
Other provisions addressed the legal complications that arose when slaves interacted with free society, including marriages between slaves and free persons and the status of children born from those unions. Law 282 addresses defiance: a slave who denied his master’s authority by declaring “you are not my master” could have his ear cut off.4History Department at Hanover College. Hammurabis Code
Laws 215–274: Surgeons, Builders, and Wages
The code held skilled professionals personally answerable for the outcome of their work. Law 215 paid a surgeon eighty grams of silver for saving a free person’s life through a major operation.4History Department at Hanover College. Hammurabis Code Law 218 says that if the same operation killed the patient, or destroyed the patient’s eye, the surgeon’s hands were cut off.2Yale Law School Avalon Project. The Code of Hammurabi
Builders faced parallel rules. Law 229 required the execution of a contractor whose collapsed house killed the owner. Law 230 pushed reciprocal justice further: if the collapse killed the owner’s son, the builder’s own son was put to death.2Yale Law School Avalon Project. The Code of Hammurabi
Laws 273 and 274 fixed daily wages for field hands, herdsmen, and various skilled tradespeople. Workers knew their pay before starting a job, and an employer could not cut wages once work was underway.