The Code of Hammurabi (The 282 oldest Babylonian laws from ancient Mesopotamia) - Annotated The influence that Ancient Near Eastern Religion and the Old Testament left upon humans

This etext was the earliest known written legal code, one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world composed about 1780 B.C.E. by Hammurabi, the sixth Babylonian king. This text was excavated in 1901; it was carved on an eight foot high stone monolith.

The code consists of 282 laws, with scaled punishments, adjusting "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" as graded depending on social status, of slave versus free man.