Hammurabi's Laws: Text, Translation and Glossary (Academic Paperback)

424 Pages·2005·12.18 MB·English

by  M. E. J. Richardson

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).