It is not to be supposed that all of the laws found in Khammurabi’s code date from his reign. Some of them were much older, as is shown by a difference in the grades of culture represented. Some even assign different penalties for the same crime (see clauses 6 and 8). As Prof. Jastrow

l has pointed out, the ordeal by water cannot have been invented in the same period as the minute provisions for the inheritance of property.

The so-called Sumerian domestic laws which are very similar to those before us were known prior to the discovery of Khammurabi’s code, and are known to have been already in use at that time. The code contains something like 280 clauses, and is arranged in comparatively systematic order. Space has not permitted the giving of all the provisions in detail. The plan has been to deal with each class of laws as a whole, in some cases giving merely the synopsis of a class.[31]

Miscellaneous Regulations

1. If a man weaves a spell about another man (i.e., accuses him), and throws a curse on him, and cannot prove it, the one who wove the spell shall be put to death.

2. If a man weaves a spell about another man, and has not proved it, he on whom suspicion was thrown shall go to the river, shall plunge into the river. If the river seizes hold of him, he who wove the spell shall take his house. If the river shows him to be innocent, and he is uninjured, he who threw suspicion on him shall be put to death. He who plunged into the river shall take the house of him who wove the spell on him.

3. If a man has accused the witnesses in a lawsuit of malice and has not proved what he said; if the suit was one of life (and death), that man shall be put to death.

4. If he has sent corn and silver to the witnesses, he shall bear the penalty of the suit.

5. If a judge has delivered a sentence, has made a decision and fixed it in writing, and if afterwards he has annulled his sentence, that judge for having altered his decision shall be brought to judgment; for the penalty inflicted in his decision, twelve-fold shall he pay it, and publicly shall they remove him from his judgment seat. He shall not come back and shall not sit in judgment with the other judges.

6. If a man has stolen property from the god or palace, that man shall be put to death; and he who received the stolen goods from his hands shall be put to death.