Code of Hammurabi

The Code of Hammurabi is one of the oldest known written legal codes, created by Babylonian King Hammurabi. The laws were inscribed on a black stone stele, now housed in the Louvre.

The code contains 282 laws covering family relations, labor, property, trade, and personal injury. Its famous principle of “an eye for an eye” (lex talionis) influenced later legal traditions.

The code predates the Mosaic Law by several centuries, and scholars have noted similarities between Hammurabi’s laws and portions of the Torah.