List of Variants Between the Parallel Sources for the Laws of Hammurabi
No. Tablets H1 LH ia 6-15 Variant Text ša-i-im ši-ma-at KALAM Categorisation
a-na DINGIR AMAR.UD DUMU re-eš-ti-im ša
d EN.KI d EN.LÍL-ut KIŠ
ni-šì i-ši-mu-šum in I-giú-šar-bí-ù-šu 4 -gi 4
SV(2) – Different phraseology be-
tween the sources.^354B i 2-11 [ ]ni-ši [ r]a-pí [ m]u-ba-˹x˺[ ]˹li-iṭ˺
[ ]ú-um[ ]
[ ]-it qá-[t]i-šu-un[ ] [ ]ú-tim mi-ša-ri-um
[ ]ši-rik-ti iš-ru-ku-šu [ ]-ša-at-li-mu-šu
[ ]a˹ši˺-ma-at ša-ru-tim ṭ-ṭi-im ù a-gi-i
(^354) The opening lines of the stele are phrased differently in B, though only lines 3-15 are sufficiently pre-
served in parallel to allow meaningful comment. According to M.E.J. Richardson, Hammurabi's Laws:
Text, Translation, and Glossary (New York: T&T Clark, 2004) 17, B can be restored: ... nišī ... Hammurabi
mārim rēštîm ša Sinmubaliṭ lipit qātišun rē’ūtim mīšarium ana širikti išrukūšu ušatlimūšu ḫaṭṭim u agī sī-
māt šarrūtim, “... people ... Hammurabi, the first son of Sinmuballit; by the touch of their hands they en-
dowed him with the gift of the pastorship of justice; they presented him with the sword and the crown as
signs of kingship.” This stands in contrast to the stele itself, which reads: ... šā’im šīmāt mātim ana Marduk
mārim rēštîm ša Ea ellilūt kiššat nišī išīmūšum in Igigī ušarbiūšu, “... (Enlil) who determines the fate of the
nation allotted to Marduk, first born son of Ea, governance of all the peoples of the world. They exalted
him among the Igigi.” Certainly the proper noun Hammurabi does not appear on the stele until later in the
prologue (line ia 50), and the plural noun nišī is also out of place by several lines. In the light of the two
other variants that B preserves in the prologue (see H2 and H132) it seems that this Late Babylonian manu-
script held a different tradition for the opening section of the text. The parallel text to lines ia 6-15 of the
stele seems to be significantly abbreviated in B based on the available space contained in the reconstructed
tablet. At the same time B appears to have additional material describing the instruments that symbolise
kingship, and a reference to Hammurabi that is not paralleled in the stele. R. Borger, Babylonisch-
Assyrische Lesestücke, 7, notes that B “hat jedoch statt Stele I 1-15, einen völlig abweichenden Abschnitt”
[has a completely different section in place of Stele I 1-15]. D.J. Wiseman, "Hammurabi Again," 161, sug-
gests that B most likely preserves a copy of the prologue that “followed a primary source, perhaps that of
which the stele itself was one version.”