The Code of Hammurabi isn't what it seems at first glance. Modern people naïvely read it like a legal code, but that interpretation doesn't hold up to scrutiny. It contains too many inconsistencies to be a practical legal code. One of the more obvious examples is the case of property given to another for safekeeping without a document documenting the arrangement. Is the recipient a thief who should be put to death? Or can the recipient keep the property without consequence because the alleged owner has no proof of anything? Furthermore, records concerning disputes contemporary with the Code of Hammurabi exist. Other than a single reference to a standard wage for weavers on the stele, records do not reference the code. Indeed, legal decisions are often inconsistent with the code.

The Code of Hammurabi is best understood as royal propaganda designed to portray Hammurabi as a just king. The famous stele starts with a graphic depiction of him receiving the royal rod and ring from Shamash, the sun god who was emblematic of truth and justice. The laws are best understood as a statement of the kind of justice Hammurabi wished to see done in his kingdom, not a set of rules.