The Historians' History of the World 01

19. If he retains that slave in his house, and if, later, the slave is found in his hands, that man shall be put to death.

20. If the slave escapes from the house of the one who caught him, that man shall swear to the owner of the slave in the name of God and he shall be quit.

Provisions concerning Robbery

21. If anyone has broken a hole in a house, in front of that hole one shall kill him and bury him.

22. If anyone has committed a robbery and is caught, he shall be killed.

23. If the robber is not caught, the man who has been robbed shall make claim before God to everything stolen from him, and the town and its governor within the territory and limits of which the robbery took place shall give back to him everything he has lost.

24. If it was a life, the city and governor shall pay one mina of silver to his people.

25. If a fire breaks out in the house of a man, and some one who has gone thither to put it out raise his eyes to the goods of the master of the house, and take the goods of the master of the house, that man shall be thrown into that fire.

Concerning Leases and Tillage

Special rules governed the estates of officers or constables in the king’s employ. They seem to have had land given them by the state, which was inalienable; they might not sell it, deed it to wife or daughter, or give it in return for a debt. In the absence of the proprietor he might give the land into the keeping of another to manage it for him. This was usually done by a son or wife. Three years’ absence or neglect forfeited his claim to the land. No man could send a substitute in his place on pain of death for both himself and the substitute. The king’s officers could buy land in their own right which they were free to dispose of at pleasure, and they could also sell the land which was theirs by official right to another officer.

42. If anyone has taken a field to cultivate, and has not made grain to grow in the field, he shall be charged with not having done his duty in the field; he shall give grain equal to that yielded by the neighbouring field to the owner of the field.

43. If he has not tilled the field, has let it lie, he shall give to the owner of the field grain equal to the yield of the neighbouring field; and the field which he left untilled, he shall harrow, sow, and return it to its owner.

44. If anyone has hired an unreclaimed field for three years, to open (cultivate) it, but has neglected it, has not opened the field, in the fourth year he shall harrow the field, hoe it, and plant it and return it to the owner of the field, and 10 GUR of grain for every 10 GAN he shall measure out.

45. If a man has rented his field to a cultivator for the produce and he has received his produce, and then a storm has come and destroyed the harvest, the loss is the cultivator’s.

46. If he has not received the produce from his field, but has given his field on a half or a third share, the grain which is in the field shall the owner and cultivator share according to their contract.

47. If the cultivator, because in the first year he did not obtain his living (?), had the field cultivated by another, the owner of the field shall not blame this cultivator, his field has been cultivated; at the time of harvest he shall receive grain according to his contract.

48. If a man has a debt and a storm has devastated his field and carried off the harvest, or if the grain has not grown on account of a lack of water, in that year he shall give no grain to the creditor; he shall soak his tablet (in water, i.e., alter it), and shall pay no interest for that year.

49. If anyone has borrowed money from a merchant and given a ploughed field sown with grain or sesame to the merchant and said to him: “Cultivate the field, harvest and take the grain or sesame which is thereon;” when the cultivator has raised grain or sesame in the field, at the time of harvest the owner of the field shall take the grain or sesame which is in the field, and shall give to the merchant grain in return for the money with its interest, which he took from the merchant, and for the support of the cultivator.

50. If he has given him an (already) cultivated field (of grain) or a field of sesame, the grain or sesame which is in the field shall the owner of the field receive; money and interest to the merchant he shall give.

51. If he has no money with which to pay him, he shall give to the merchant sesame equal to the value of the money which he received from the merchant, with interest according to the king’s tariff.

52. If the cultivator has not raised grain or sesame in the field, his contract is not altered.

Concerning Canals

The canals built by Khammurabi are frequently referred to in his inscriptions so that we expect to find them mentioned in his laws. Clauses 53-56 are in connection with this subject: