The Old Testament In the Light of The Historical Records and Legends Part 43

He who directs the temple E-ma?, the prince who is the city-king, the warrior who is without rival;

He who has given life to the city Makan-abri, who has caused abundance to arise for the temple Melam;

The wise, the active one, who has captured the robbers' hiding-places, sheltered the people of Malka in (their) misfortune, caused their seats to be founded in abundance, (and) inst.i.tuted pure offerings for Ae and Damgal-nunna, who have made his kingdom great for ever.

The prince who is city-king, who subjugated the settlements of the Euphrates, the boundary (of) Dagan, his creator, who spared the people of Mera and Tutul;

The supreme prince, who has made the face of the G.o.ddess Itar to s.h.i.+ne, set pure repasts for the divinity Nin-azu, who cared for his people in (their) need, fixing their dues within Babylon peacefully;

The shepherd of the people, whose deeds are good unto Itar, who set Itar in the temple e-ulma within Agade of the (broad) streets; he who makes the faithful obedient, who guides the Race;(172)

Who returned its good genius to the city of a.s.shur, who caused (its) splendour (?) to s.h.i.+ne forth;

The king who in Nineveh has caused the names of Itar to be glorified in e-meme;(173)

The supreme one, devoted in prayer to the great G.o.ds, descendant of Sumula-ilu, the mighty son of Sin-mubali?, the eternal seed of royalty;

The powerful king, the Sun of Babylon, he who sends forth light for the land of umer and Akkad, the king causing the four regions to obey him, the beloved of the G.o.ddess Itar, am I.

When Merodach chose me to govern the people, to rule and instruct the land, law and justice I set in the mouth of the land-in that day did I bring about the well-being of the people.

The Laws.

1. If a man ban a man, and cast a spell upon him, and has not justified it, he who has banned him shall be killed.

2. If a man has thrown a spell upon a man, and has not justified it, he upon whom the spell has been thrown shall go to the river,(174) (and) shall plunge into the river, and if the river take him, he who banned him may take his house. If the river show that man to be innocent, and save (him), he who threw the spell upon him shall be killed; he who plunged into the river may take possession of the house of him who banned him.

3. If a man in a lawsuit has come forward (to bear) false witness, and has not justified the word he has spoken, if that lawsuit be a lawsuit of life,(175) that man shall be killed.

4. If he has come forward (to bear) witness concerning wheat or silver, he shall bear the guilt of that lawsuit.

5. If a judge has given judgment, and decided a decision, and delivered a tablet (thereupon), and afterwards his judgment is found faulty, that judge, for the fault in the judgment he had judged, they shall summon, and the claim which is in question(176) he shall (re)pay twelvefold, and in the a.s.sembly they shall make him rise up from his judgment-seat, and he shall not return, and he shall not sit again with the judges in judgment.

6. If a man has stolen the property of a G.o.d, or of the palace, that man shall be killed; and he who has received the stolen thing from his hand shall be killed.

7. If a man has bought either silver, or gold, or a man-slave, or a woman-slave, or an ox, or a sheep, or an a.s.s, or anything whatever, from the hands of the son of a man or the slave of a man, without witness or contract, or has received it on deposit, that man is a thief-he shall be killed.

8. If a man has stolen either an ox, or a sheep, or an a.s.s, or a pig, or a s.h.i.+p-if it be from a G.o.d or from the palace, he shall (re)pay thirtyfold; if it be from a poor man, he shall restore tenfold. If the thief have not wherewith to (re)pay, he shall be killed.

9. If a man who has lost his property meet with his lost property in the hands of a man, (and) the man in whose hands the lost thing has been found say "a certain seller sold it-I bought it before certain witnesses," and the owner of the lost object say "Let me bring witnesses who will recognize my lost object," the buyer shall bring forward the seller who sold it, and the witnesses before whom he bought (it), and the owner of the lost object shall bring forward the witnesses who will recognize his lost object. The judge shall see what they have to say, and the witnesses before whom the purchase was made, and the witnesses knowing the object lost shall speak before G.o.d,(177) and (if) the seller is the thief, he shall be killed. The owner of the lost object shall take (back) his lost object; the buyer shall receive (back) from the house of the seller the silver which he has paid.

10. If the buyer has not brought forward the seller who sold it to him and the witnesses before whom he bought (it), (and) the owner of the lost object has brought forward witnesses recognizing his lost object, the buyer is a thief-he shall be killed; the owner of the object lost shall take (back) the lost object.

11. If the owner of the lost object has not brought forward witnesses recognizing his lost object, he is a rogue, (and) has made a false accusation-he shall be killed.

12. If the seller has gone to his fate, the buyer shall receive from the house of the seller the claims of that judgment fivefold.

13. If that man have not his witnesses at hand, the judge shall grant him a delay of six months,(178) and if he have not procured his witnesses in six months,(179) that man is a rogue-he shall bear the guilt of that judgment.

14. If a man has stolen the young son of a man, he shall be killed.

15. If a man has caused to go forth from the gate either a slave of the palace, or a handmaid of the palace, or the slave of a poor man, or the handmaid of a poor man, he shall be killed.

16. If a man has sheltered the escaped male or female slave of the palace or of a poor man in his house, and at the request of the steward has not sent him forth, the master of that house shall be killed.

17. If a man has met the escaped male or female slave in the fields, and has taken him back to his master, the master of the slave shall give him two shekels of silver.

18. If that slave will not name his master, he shall take him to the palace, his intention shall be inquired into, and they shall return him to his master.

19. If he has shut up that slave in his house, and afterwards the slave has been found in his hands, that man shall be killed.

20. If a slave escape from the hands of the man who has found him, that man shall call G.o.d to witness(180) unto the master of the slave, and shall be held blameless.

21. If a man has made a breach in a house, in front of that breach they shall kill him and bury him.

22. If a man has exercised brigandage, and has been taken, that man shall be killed.

23. If the brigand has not been captured, the man who has been robbed shall take the thing which he has lost before G.o.d, and the city and the authorities within whose territory and boundaries the brigandage has been exercised shall make up to him what he has lost.

24. If (it be a question of) a life, the city and authorities shall pay one mana of silver to his people.

25. If the house of a man has been set on fire,(181) and a man who went to extinguish it has raised his eyes to the property of the owner of the house, and taken the property of the owner of the house, that man shall be thrown into that same fire.

26. If an army-leader or a soldier, who has been commanded to go his way on a royal expedition, does not go, and has hired a mercenary, and his subst.i.tute is taken, that army-leader or soldier shall be killed, he who changed with him shall take his house.

27. If an army-leader or a soldier, who by the king's misfortune is kept prisoner, afterwards they have given his field and plantation to another, and he has carried on its administration; if (the original owner) then return and reach his city, they shall return to him his field and plantation, and he himself shall carry on its administration.

28. If the son of an army-leader or a soldier, who is kept prisoner by the king's misfortune, is able to carry on the administration, they shall give to him the field and plantation, and he shall carry on the administration for his father.

29. If his son is young, and is unable to carry on the administration for his father, the third part of the field and plantation shall be given to his mother, and his mother shall bring him up.

30. If an army-leader or a soldier neglect his field, his plantation, and his house on account of the burden, and leave it waste, (and) another after him has taken his field, his plantation, and his house, and has carried on its administration for three years, if he return and wish to cultivate his field, his plantation, and his house, it shall not be given to him-he who took and has carried on its administration shall continue to administer.

31. If for one year (only) he has let (them) lie waste, and has returned, his field, his plantation, and his house they shall give to him, and he shall carry on his administration himself.

32. If a merchant has redeemed an army-leader or a soldier who has been kept prisoner upon a royal expedition, and has caused him to regain his city-if in his house there be (the wherewithal) for his redemption, he shall then redeem himself. If in his house there be not (the wherewithal) for his redemption, in the house of his city's G.o.d he shall be redeemed.

If in the house of his city's G.o.d there be not (the wherewithal) for his redemption, the palace shall redeem him. His field, his plantation, and his house shall not be given for his redemption.

33. If a governor or a prefect have a subst.i.tute,(182) or for a royal expedition accept a mercenary as subst.i.tute and incorporate (him), that governor or prefect shall be killed.

34. If a governor or a prefect take the property of an army-officer, ruin an army-officer, lend an army-officer for hire, grant an army-officer in a lawsuit to a magnate, take the gift which the king has given to an army-officer, that governor or prefect shall be killed.

35. If a man purchase from the hands of an army-officer the cattle and sheep which the king has given to the army-officer, he shall forfeit his money.

36. Field, plantation, and house of an army-officer, soldier, and tax-payer he(183) shall not sell for silver.