The Code of Hammurabi

What is Hammurabi's Code?

• a collection of 282 laws believed to be the first written laws

• a group of soldiers and noblemen who lived in ancient Mesopotamia

• the ancient idea that a punishment should fit the crime

• the punishment for stealing sheep from a nobleman in ancient Mesopotamia

What does this passage describe?

• the origin and meaning of the word "judge"

• what Mesopotamian society was like before written law

• the life and death of the Mesopotamian King Hammurabi

• the function and influence of the first written laws

Read these sentences from the text.

In an effort to make the punishment fit the crime, Hammurabi’s Code often required the criminal to receive the same injury that he or she had inflicted on a victim. Such laws may seem harsh today, but they were intended to prevent society from descending into chaos and disorder.

Based on this evidence, what might King Hammurabi have wanted to promote in society?

• chaos and confusion

• justice and order

• anger and violence

• wealth and fortune

How might Hammurabi's Code have prevented a single ruler from imposing, or forcing, his or her will on people?

• by convincing the public that a ruler always wants what is best for the people

• by punishing a ruler for trying to change the Code

• by forcing a ruler to get people to agree on a new law before adding it to the Code

• by preventing the ruler from making up new laws that were not mentioned in the Code

What is the main idea of this text?

• In the time of Hammurabi's Code, it was illegal for a shepherd to steal a sheep from the flock of a nobleman.

• The U.S. Constitution is mostly based on the ideas and laws mentioned in Hammurabi's Code.

• Hammurabi’s code and the U.S. Constitution differ in that the laws in Hammurabi’s Code often depended on social standing.

• Hammurabi's Code was the first collection of written law and advanced the rule of law in Mesopotamia.

Why might the author have described the imaginary trial of the shepherd who stole the nobleman's sheep?

• to show that the shepherd did not commit the crime of which he was accused

• to show that a single ruler could impose his or her will on other people

• to show how Hammurabi's Code might apply to a specific situation

• to convince the reader that Hammurabi's Code was unfair in its punishments

Choose the answer that best completes the sentence.

All 282 laws of Hammurabi's Code were also probably read aloud in public on a regular basis _________ no one could be excused for committing a crime because of not knowing the law.

• although

• however

• above all

• so that