A few weeks ago, the World History class read about King Hammurabi of Babylon and the well known Code of Hammurabi. (See this link for a synopsis of the Code.) In groups, Teen Day participants read some of the laws in the Code, and evaluated them—were they good laws? why were they made in the first place?
The Code of Hammurabi includes such gems as the (in)famous “an eye for an eye,” as well as less-known policies regulating when and for how long one can sell their children to cover a debt and an edict to kill the builder of a poorly constructed home.
In the end, we considered the question:
Did Hammurabi succeed in his stated goal “to cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil, that the strong may not oppress the weak?”
Here are our answers:
If this question is referring to his laws, yes. Hammurabi seemed to understand what measures should be taken to prevent injustice, and wrote his laws accordingly (mostly).
– Romneya
Yes he did. Through his 282 codes, he brought a sense of fairness to the people, and order to society. And by trying to protect the people without much power, Hammurabi succeeded in fulfilling his second goal.
– Oswald
I do not think it worked perfectly, but I think it worked quite well for that time.
– Drew
Yes, Hammurabi did succeed in his stated goal “to cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil, that the strong may not oppress the weak.” He did this by creating a set of laws called Hammurabi’s Code. Hammurabi’s Code helped people live together more peacefully, gave them some ordered society, and helped them view the world as a more stable, predictable place. Hammurabi’s Code was a step toward controlling violence, and was a sign of how far civilization was advancing.
– Lexi
Yes, he did! The eye for an eye law and other laws helped prevent people from being violent to each other, which stopped fights and wars between families, friends, and neighbors. With Hammurabi’s laws, a rich merchant could not take a poor man’s eye out without his own eye taken out. This law prevents bigger, richer, or stronger from oppressing the weak. Hammurabi’s law brought peace and justice to the land.
– Banyan
I believe that in a lot of ways this helped, however, in cases like slavery, just because of ethnicity, a person could be forced to do manual labor for years, possible a lifetime. I do believe that without the Code of Hammurabi, a lot more people would have been killed or injured for unjust reasons.
– Rose
Based on what I read in chapter 7, I believe that he did make it a much better place. His laws seemed to well reflect on the culture, although I doubt they would be used in present day.
– Noah
He was almost successful in that. But the strong still opposed the weak, because one of his codes says someone who can’t pay their debts becomes a slave for a significant amount of time.
– Riley
TEEN DAY Ithaca 