by
Damien F. Mackey
Most Interestingly, King Dadusha issued a
(Mosaïc-like) Law Code
that is considered to have “anticipated” that of
Hammurabi of Babylon.
A famous Mari Letter informs us:
There is no king who is mighty by himself. Ten or fifteen kings follow
Hammurabi the ruler of Babylon, a like number Rim-Sin of Larsa, a like number
Ibal-pi-el of Eshnunna, a like number Amud-pi-el of Qatanum, but twenty follow
Yarim-Lim of Yamhad.
Conventionally:
The historical setting for this was, supposedly, the C18th BC, after the
passing of the powerful Syro-Mitannian (Assyrian) king, Shamsi-Adad I (c. 1800
BC).
Yarim-Lim of Yamhad (unknown) has now become the pre-eminent king in the
region.
The geographical setting ranges from, supposedly, Syria (Amurru) to
Mesopotamia.
Revised:
The correct historical setting for this was the C10th BC, after the
passing of the powerful Syrian king, Hadadezer (Dean Hickman, George Albert.
1986. “The Dating of Hammurabi.” In Proceedings of The Third Seminar of
Catastrophism and Ancient History), the foe of King David of Israel (I
Kings 11:23-25):
Here is how God made Rezon son of Eliada an enemy of Solomon: Rezon had
run away from his master, King Hadadezer of Zobah. He formed his own small army
and became its leader after David had defeated Hadadezer’s troops. Then Rezon
and his army went to Damascus, where he became the ruler of Syria and an enemy
of Israel.
In these few scriptural verses, we now find several known historical
characters of the
Hammurabic era: Zimri-Lim (Rezon); Iahdulim (Eliada); Shamsi-Adad I
(Hadadezer).
And, Dean Hickman also identified Uru-kabkabu (Rekhob), the father of
Shamsi-Adad I, with Rehob (Rekhob), the father of Hadadezer (2 Samuel 8:3):
“Moreover, David defeated Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah, when
he went to restore his monument at the Euphrates River”.
The geographical setting now needs some serious revision.
With the land of Chaldea shifted all the way to NW Syria:
A PROBLEM
IN CHALDAEAN AND ELAMITE GEOGRAPHY
(4) A PROBLEM IN CHALDAEAN AND
ELAMITE GEOGRAPHY
the mighty Iarim-Lim becomes the biblical Hiram, and Yamhad (Iamkhad)
becomes Chaldea, the ‘Sealand” kingdom.
Babylon is to be shifted far further to the west (now as
Carchemish/Karduniash), making Hiram’s brilliant protégé, the highly-skilled
artisan, Huram-abi (Hiram-abi) (2 Chronicles 2:14), a standout candidate for
Hammurabi himself.
And, as explained in my recent article:
House of
David
Eshnunna/Lagash is Lachish in SW Judah and, its king, Ibal-piel, is Solomon,
making David his father, Dadusha (also Naram-Sin) of Eshnunna.
Most Interestingly, King Dadusha issued a (Mosaïc-like) Law Code that is
considered to have “anticipated” that of Hammurabi of Babylon:
The laws of Eshnunna (Deuteronomy 9) | larshaukeland
Eshnunna … a code of laws has been discovered from this civilization.
Judging from the fragments that remain of the laws’ superscription, it appears
that King Dadusha … issued this law code for his city. It is the earliest
example of an Akkadian [sic] law code discovered to date and anticipates in
form and context its successor, the much more famous Code of Hammurabi (who
conquered Eshnunna in 1766 B.C.)
The code of Eshnunna is fairly short but covers a wide range of topics,
including price controls for products like barley and wool and regulations
involving theft, the status of slaves, marital relations, crimes of violence,
and vicious animals. It includes, for example, laws concerning a dangerous ox
and the liability of its owner, which are closely paralleled in Exodus
21:28-32.
The Eshnunna law code is significant for Biblical studies. ….
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