Texts in Conversation
Exodus 20 follows a tradition based on the Code of Hammurabi, where justice is connected to honoring a deity’s name at a sacred place. Hammurabi preserves his own name on a monument and Exodus reshapes this to emphasize honoring God's name.
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Code of Hammurabi
Babylonian Legal Text
Ancient Near East
The great gods have called me, I am the salvation-bearing shepherd, whose staff is straight, the good shadow that is spread over my city; on my breast I cherish the inhabitants of the land of Sumer and Akkad; in my shelter I have let them repose in peace; in my deep wisdom have I enclosed them. That the strong might not injure the weak, in order to protect the widows and orphans, I have in Babylon the city where Anu and Bel raise high their head, in E-Sagil, the Temple, whose foundations stand firm as heaven and earth, in order to bespeak justice in the land, to settle all disputes, and heal all injuries, set up these my precious words, written upon my memorial stone, before the image of me, as king of righteousness. The king who ruleth among the kings of the cities am I. My words are well considered; there is no wisdom like unto mine. By the command of Shamash, the great judge of heaven and earth, let righteousness go forth in the land: by the order of Marduk, my lord, let no destruction befall my monument. In E-Sagil, which I love, let my name be ever repeated; let the oppressed, who has a case at law, come and stand before this my image as king of righteousness; let him read the inscription, and understand my precious words: the inscription will explain his case to him; he will find out what is just, and his heart will be glad, so that he will say: 'Hammurabi is a ruler, who is as a father to his subjects, who holds the words of Marduk in reverence, who has achieved conquest for Marduk over the north and south, who rejoices the heart of Marduk, his lord, who has bestowed benefits for ever and ever on his subjects, and has established order in the land.'
Date: 1750 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Exodus 20:24
Hebrew Bible
23 You must not make gods of silver alongside me, nor make gods of gold for yourselves. 24 “‘You must make for me an altar made of earth, and you will sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I cause my name to be honored I will come to you and I will bless you. 25 If you make me an altar of stone, you must not build it of stones shaped with tools, for if you use your tool on it you have defiled it.
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Notes and References
"... The key to understanding many of the correspondences in the apodictic laws is to realize that the Covenant Code has replaced Hammurabi and Mesopotamian gods with Yahweh. The Israelite-Judean god is now the author and revealer of law. His cult symbol, the altar, has replaced Hammurabi’s temple statue. Just as the exhortatory block has Hammurabi’s name memorialized at a cult site (“May my name [šumī] be recalled in the Esagil temple favorably forever”), The Covenant Code has Yahweh’s name memorialized at a cult site (“In every place where I cause my name to be recalled”) and prohibits the memorializing of other gods (“you shall not mention/recall the name of other gods”). The Covenant Code extends the theme of name memorialization to prohibit the cursing of deity and the native “chieftain” (i.e., the king). The coming of a wronged man before Hammurabi’s statue and stela at the Esagil temple (“let a wronged man who has a case come before the statue of me, king of justice”) is replaced with the thrice-yearly visit of male pilgrims for the festivals ..."
Wright, David P.
Inventing God's Law: How the Covenant Code of the Bible Used and Revised the Laws of Hammurabi
(p. 11) Oxford University Press, 2009
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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