The remaining part of the inscription (except for the 7 columns cut out) is occupied by 247 articles of the law. This stele was a kind of solemn statement of Hammurabi before his subjects about the entry into force of the laws written on it. After the "publication" and promulgation in the temple of Eagle, the original was reproduced in many copies, which were sent to all parts of the vast empire of the king of Babylon. The surviving copy is one such copy, which was exhibited in Sippara. During one of the Elamite raids on Babylon, this stele, with its laws, was dug up and taken to Susa as a military trophy. Most likely, the Elamite military leader-winner ordered to scrape out seven columns of text in order to knock out his name on this place (according to the custom of that time) in memory of his own victories. The texts of the cut out columns were partially replenished with inscriptions on clay tablets found in the palace of King Ashurbanipal.
The Babylonian code of laws is divided into three parts - introduction, articles of laws and conclusion. Introduction, which we mentioned above, is very important for scientists by the abundance of reported historical hints and geographical designations.
The legislation itself begins with five provisions on the violation of the order of legal proceedings: two articles on the accuser, two - on false witnesses and one - on the violation of justice by the judge himself.
"If the judge passes a verdict, rules a decision, makes a document, and then changes his verdict, then, by exposing him in the change of the verdict, this judge must pay twelvefold the amount of the claim brought in this case, and must be publicly overthrown from his judicial chair and never sit down again with the judges for trial.
The following articles deal with crimes against private property - theft, sale and purchase of stolen goods, kidnapping, flight and abduction of slaves, burglary at night, robbery, etc. Here, for example, are some articles of King Hammurabi's laws.
"If someone steals a temple or palace property, he must be put to death; he must also be put to death if he accepts the stolen goods from his hands.
If someone steals the youngest son of another, he must be put to death.
If someone, having hidden in his house a fugitive servant belonging to the palace or a freedman, does not surrender him to the demand of nakedness, this householder must be put to death.
If any man, having caught a fugitive servant or a slave in the field, delivers him to his master, the master must pay him two shekels of silver.
If someone breaks through the house, he is killed and buried before the break.
If someone commits a robbery and is caught, he must be put to death.
If a fire breaks out in someone's house and someone comes to put it out and looks at something of the householder's property and takes possession of something of the householder's property, the person is thrown into the same fire.
If someone who has taken the field for processing does not grow bread on it, then, after exposing it in this, he must give the owner of the field bread, according to the growth of the neighbor.
If someone, having opened his pond for irrigation, will carelessly admit that the next field will be flooded with water, he is obliged to measure the bread in accordance with the growth of his neighbor.
If someone cuts down a tree in somebody's garden without the permission of the owner of the garden, he must pay half a mile of silver.
If criminals gather in the house of the tavernas and she does not apprehend these criminals and does not give up the palace, these taverns must be put to death.
If someone stretches his finger against a divine sister or someone else's wife and turns out to be wrong, that person should be thrown down before the judges and his hair cut.
If someone's wife is captured lying with another man, she must have tied them up and thrown them in the water. If the husband spares his wife's life, the king will spare his slave's life.
If someone's wife kills her husband because of another man, she should be put on a stake.
If a son hits his father, he must cut off his hands.
If someone hits a superior face on his cheek, he should publicly hit him with a cowhide whip sixty times.
If the doctor removes the bronze knife from the patient's eye and damages the eye, he must pay half the cost of the knife.
King Hammurabi's Code of Laws is a known reference in the jurisprudence of ancient Babylonian criminal and civil law. Perhaps not in all spheres of life (as we would say today) the Babylonian king managed to put things in order, but he was the first ruler of antiquity, who compared with the power of the king of the law and recognized the right of the subjects to take care of their own lives. Hammurabi decided that the punishment for the guilty person should be determined not by the victim himself or his relative, but by the state body in the name of the ruler. Having for the first time presented civil law in court, Hammurabi erected a monument to himself as eternal as the slab of diorite, on which he ordered to portray himself next to the god of the sun and justice Shamash.