Pandikow: The Punishment In Babylonian Society

Pandikow !1
1. The punishments in Babylonian at that time were very strict and hard. If you’d break one of the laws, there would always be a consequence. One common punishment was being put to death. This was often the consequence for hurting or killing somebody else. If you broke these laws, there was only one strict consequence for your previous actions. This punishment was used for many laws, and the reason for this might’ve been that the Babylonian society should not have any “bad” people in it, and if there were people like that, they should not exist anymore. Law 229 shows that even regular people doing mistakes can receive this punishment. Like it says in the law, if a builder does not construct the house properly and the house falls
in and kills the owner, the builder shall be put to death. It could be a mistake that the construction went wrong, and that the person who made the mistake should die is a very hard punishment. In this society, it’s obviously not right to make mistakes and you should be punished for everything you do wrong. This does not help you to develop and learn from your mistakes, as a human in a regular society would do, because you might be put to death directly. Such thing as jail did not exist in this society.
Another common punishment was to get thrown into the river. This was often used for laws that had to do with betrayal and accusations. As law 2 indicates, if the accused goes to the river and dies, the accuser shall take possession of his house. If the river decides that the accused is not guilty and he survives and escapes unhurt, the accuser shall be put to death and the before accused shall take possession of the accusers belongings. The society believed in the river and thought that the Gods might control it and decide which people are guilty and who’s not. The river was always right, so if the man survived the river, he would be free from all the accusations because the river showed that he was not guilty of anything.
One punishment that was special was the consequence for hurting someone else. Law 197 says that if you break another nobleman’s bone, your bone shall be broken. This is a sort of reflection, so everything you do to hurt someone else will come back to you and hurt you too. I think laws like this were made to show that hurting someone else is not okay, and the punishment is to show you how it feels for the other person. This is a punishment that you can learn from and know that hurting someone else is not okay and will never be respected.
2. Law 129 indicates that if a man’s wife gets caught having sex with someone else, they both (wife and lover) get thrown into the water. There is a chance for the wife to get away from the punishment, and that is if the husband forgives her. Law 130 is basically the other way around, so if the man gets caught having sex with somebody else, he shall be put to death. In a case like this, it shows that the men have more power than women, because the men can forgive the woman and she gets to live, but when it’s the other way, it doesn’t matter what the wife says. The consequence is already determined. This gives the men more power to decide over women, and also a second chance for the women to live, but the men get a harder punishment.
3. These laws show that not everyone as treated equally. You can see this in law 117, where it tells about debts. If he in some way manage to pay back his debts, he will be set free. If not, he has to sell himself and his family for money. They shall work for three years in the house of the man who
Pandikow !2 bought them, and in the fourth year they shall be set free. Here, it shows a difference between rich and poor. If you’re poor, you will have to work for the rich people.
There are some laws that show that they were treated equally sometimes. One of these laws is law 200 that says if a man knocks out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out. Basically what this means is that if you hurt someone, the exact same thing will be done to you too.
4.
One law that shows how the society was in Babylonian at that time is law 202, that says if you hurt somebody in a higher rank, you will receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public. This gives us the information that there existed different ranks in the Babylonian society. The people in a higher rank were worth more and seemed more important than the people in the ranks beneath them. This could also have to do with money, because people in higher ranks were probably rich and had more power because of their money. The people who had slaves were often rich, and this because they could afford it and they needed the help. Slaves were most likely ranked the lowest and women were probably not ranked very high either because they did not have a lot of power, especially not as much as men
had.
One other inference we can make about the Babylonian society from the laws is that the had much belief in the river and probably thought that the Gods controlled it. The punishment to be thrown into the river was very common, and if the Gods knew that you were not guilty you would survive, but if you were guilty, you would die. For example, law 2 is all about the belief in the river. The river knew everything and also knew who was guilty and who not, at least the inhabitants believed so.
Part B
1.
Hammurabi was at that time the king of Babylonian and had all the power. I think he wrote the laws to show that he decided on what was going to be legal and what not. He had the right to decide who should live and who should die. Even though the laws probably were made so that Hammurabi could show how much power he had, I think that he also wanted Babylonian to be a safe place for the people living there. If you broke the law, there would be a strict consequence. This tells us that he wanted to get rid of the “evil” people so that Babylonian could be a safe and good society. The laws were written down and graved into a stone, then placed in public so that all the inhabitants could see it and find out what the laws were. The laws also helped the society to become stronger and better because people knew what would happen if they acted wrong and that scared them so they would follow the
laws.
2. Reading these laws tells us how strict the consequences for breaking the law was. This gives us a better understanding in what they believed was right and wrong, and how the “wrong” would be punished. It also provides us with information so that we can read about how men and women had different ranks in society and the power of these two genders. The laws are very detailed, explaining the crime and punishment so you get a better understanding of it. However, it does not tell us if these laws worked and if people were following them. It also does not show if people always were found guilty or if there even was an investigation to find out what really happened. If you just read the laws, it seems like if somebody accused you of something, you would be punished. It also says men in most of the laws, and this does not say if women receive the same punishments as men for breaking the same law.