Laws concerning debt are treated of in clauses 113-119. A man might be imprisoned for debt, or, as in the Mosaic code, he might sell his wife and children into bondage for debt, but only for three years. We have a peculiarly doleful picture of a prison of this period, in a letter dating from the reign of Khammurabi. It is written by an imprisoned man to his master. He describes his place of confinement as a “house of want,” and begs for food and clothing, to keep him from death and being devoured by dogs. If the debtor died a natural death in his confinement, the case was at an end, but:
116. If the confined man has died in the house of his confinement as a result of blows or ill-treatment, the owner of the prisoner shall call his merchant to account. If the man was free-born, his son (of the merchant) one shall kill; if he was a slave, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver, and shall lose possession of everything which he gave him.
117. If anyone has an indebtedness, sells wife, son, or daughter for gold or gives them into bondage, three years in the house of their buyer or their taskmaster shall they labour; in the fourth year shall he let them go free.
118. If he gives away a man or woman slave into servitude, and if the merchant passes them on, sells them for money, there is no protest.
119. If anyone has contracted a debt and sells a slave who has borne him children, the money which the merchant paid, the owner of the slave shall pay back to him and buy back his slave.
Clauses 120-126 are in regard to depositing grain and other property in another’s keeping. A written document was necessary and the person who received the deposit made responsible for what had been intrusted to him.
120. If anyone has stored his grain in the house of another for keeping, and a disaster has happened in the granary, or the owner of the house has opened the granary and taken out grain, or if he disputes as to the whole amount which was deposited with him, the owner of the grain shall pursue (claim) his grain before God, and the master of the house shall return undiminished to its owner the grain which he took.
Domestic Legislation, Divorce, Inheritance
The laws referring to domestic legislation are especially interesting as showing the position of women. We know from other documents of the period that they could hold property in their own name and carry on business, and we see here that their position was respected.
127. If anyone has caused a finger to be pointed at a votary or the wife of a man and has not proved (his accusation against) that man, one shall bring him before the judge and brand his forehead.