Hammurabi And His Divine Achievements

A common theme throughout ancient Near Eastern culture seems to be the importance of gods. King Hammurabi, who led a long and illustrious career as the leader of Babylon, the largest territorial state in the ancient Near East, was no exception to this trend.

In chapters 1 to 3 of Marc Van De Mieroop’s biography of Hammurabi, titled King Hammurabi of Babylon, Van De Mieroop describes Hammurabi’s reaction upon repelling the Elamite incursion into his kingdom of Babylon. Hammurabi acknowledges that his victory and establishment of Sumer and Akkad were achieved “with the help of the great gods” (Van De Mieroop 30). Thus, Hammurabi openly credits the gods with giving him power and support.

Another instance where Hammurabi clearly establishes a connection between him and the gods occurs when he declares war on Rim-Sin, the king of Larsa. Hammurabi attaches divine significance to his attack by justifying it as “a pre-emptive act authorized by the gods” (Van De Mieroop 34). In one of Hammurabi’s speeches to the troops, Hammurabi describes how he has “complained to [the gods] Shamash and Marduk, and they have responded with a ‘yes’” regarding his ambitions to attack Larsa (Van De Mieroop 34). Though Hammurabi may have had his own reasons for declaring war on Rim-Sin (most notably as revenge for Rim-Sin’s lack of support against Elam), he nevertheless alluded to higher powers to give his subjects the impression that he was carrying out the will of the gods.

Why would Hammurabi want to share the recognition for his splendid conquests and achievements with the gods? After all, if Hammurabi took all the credit for himself, wouldn’t he be seen as a more powerful and fearsome figure than if he only took part of the credit? A possible explanation for why Hammurabi attached so much divine significance to his actions could be that he did so as a safety measure, in case one of his campaigns went wrong. If that were the case, then Hammurabi himself would not bear the full brunt of the blame for injured or dead people, destroyed towns, or ravaged crops, for example. As a result, Hammurabi’s refusal to take all the credit could have been one of the factors that contributed to his overall stability as a king – his long reign and his admirable ability to unify distinct areas in an unstable region during a tumultuous time.