Hammurabi & Moses

             Hammurabi and Moses were both born in the time before the birth of Christ. Both were leaders of their people and both brought law into their civilizations. Their systems of law and justice were similar in many respects and vastly different in others. This paper is an attempt to describe both systems of justice and offer some insight into their differences.
             Hammurabi was the sixth king of Babylon, the exact dates of his life are unknown, but it is assumed that he lived from 1810 to 1750 B.C. He was an Amorite, the name given to a Semitic group that settled in the Fertile Crescent around 2000 B.C. The estimated time of his reign is 1792 - 1750 B.C.
             "Hammurabi was known for his codification of the Babylonian laws, which was probably not his own creation, but a continuation of older law systems (Kjeilen)." "Though we hear of this great monarch first as a warrior, we know him chiefly as a statesman, a wise and watchful benefactor of mankind." Hammurabi's code was uncovered in Susa carved on a stele. Carved at the top was the picture of Hammurabi receiving the laws from the god Shamash. The stele was then placed in the temple of Marduk, a son of Shamash, (also considered as the main God of Babylon) for all to see.
             "The Babylonians had courts of justice; but they had also slaves. They had inns for travelers, taverns for the sale of strong drink, and prisons for delinquent debtors. They punished folk for oppression, for immorality, and even for slander. They had skilled laborers, carpenters and rope-makers, masons, potters, with some system of association and with bound apprentices. Sailors were a distinct class of society with a code of their own for boats passing and making way for one another upon the river. Bankers .
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             transferred money by promissory notes, and trafficked by means methods, the people were deeply superstitious, a man could be executed for "putting a spell" upon another.