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.
Date: 1750 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Exodus 22:22
Hebrew Bible
21 “You must not wrong a resident foreigner nor oppress him, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. 22 “You must not afflict any widow or orphan. 23 If you afflict them in any way and they cry to me, I will surely hear their cry, 24 and my anger will burn and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will be widows and your children will be fatherless.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
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Notes and References
"... A strong case can be made that the Covenant Code in Exodus 20:23–23:19 draws more directly from the famous Code of Hammurabi, compiled about a century after that of Eshnunna. This section of Exodus consists of two sets of apodictic laws (Exodus 20:23-26; 22:17–23:19) surrounding a series of casuistic laws (Exod 21:2–22:16), just as Hammurabi’s Code consists of casuistic laws surrounded by a prologue and an epilogue. Not only that, but there are points of contact between Hammurabi’s prologue and epilogue and the Covenant Code’s apodictic laws, in terms of both content and sequence, the strongest being a common concern for the weak, orphaned, and widow in Hammurabi and the foreigner, widow, and orphaned in Exodus 22:20-23 ..."
* 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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