Glad I didn't live in the time of Hammurabi

Laws of Retaliation:

Code of Hammurabi

Code of Hammurabi, sixth king of the Amorite Dynasty of Old Babylon. - This is the 18th Century BCE

Picture of the code as it is seen now as it was written on a stele placed in the temple of Marduk in Babylon

The code is an attempt by this Babylonian leader to find just punishment for crimes...it is a type of case list for reference.

I hope I never have to live under these type rules.

In the link above you can find 282 of these cases ... some actually seem ok. But most show inequity in treatment and value of people and some are totally unjust by today's standards.

examples:

Here is a code that seems quite reasonable:

If a man marry a woman, and she bear sons to him; if then this woman die, then shall her father have no claim on her dowry; this belongs to her sons.

OK so here is one that might be understood even if it seems harsh:

If any one agree with another to tend his field, give him seed, entrust a yoke of oxen to him, and bind him to cultivate the field, if he steal the corn or plants, and take them for himself, his hands shall be hewn off.

Here is one that part one seems at least understandable... but part two seems wrong:
229
If a builder build a house for some one, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then that builder shall be put to death.

230
If it kill the son of the owner the son of that builder shall be put to death.

Now here is one that may be a deterrent for the stubborn teenager... but still a bit difficult to imagine.

195: If a son strike his father, his hands shall be [cut] off.

There are many similar ones.

And the classic ones that seems to be the similar to the verse as seen in Deuteronomy.

196
If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. [ An eye for an eye ]

197
If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be broken.


I found another interesting site with commentary on these codes:
http://istina.rin.ru/eng/ufo/text/299.html


Was Hammurabi's code an "ancestor" of the Mosaic Law?


Unlike the Mosaic Law, it does not seek to establish principles. Rather, its object appears to be to help the judges to decide certain cases by giving them precedents or altering previous decisions to show what ought to be done in future cases. For example, it does not set forth a sanction for murder, because there was already a recognized punishment for that, and doubtless for other common crimes. Hammurabi was not attempting to cover the whole scope of law. Each of the rules of the "code" starts off with the formula: 'If a man does thus and so.' Because it relates to specific instances, rather than laying down principles, it merely tells what judgment must be given to fit a certain simple set of facts. It is based mainly on laws already in existence, merely particularizing to fit certain difficult situations current in Babylonian civilization at the time.