The king's voluntary restoration of the goddesses to their
own country may have been due to the fact that, after their transference
to Babylon, the army of the Babylonians suffered defeat in Elam. This
misfortune would naturally have been ascribed by the king and the
priests to the anger of the Elamite goddesses at being detained in a
foreign land, and Hammurabi probably arrived at his decision that they
should be escorted back in the hope of once more securing victory for
the Babylonian arms.
The care which the king exercised for the due worship of his own gods
and the proper supply of their temples is well illustrated from the
letters that have been recovered, for he superintended the collection
of the temple revenues, and the herdsmen and shepherds attached to the
service of the gods sent their reports directly to him. He also took
care that the observances of religious rites and ceremonies were duly
carried out, and on one occasion he postponed the hearing of a lawsuit
concerning the title to certain property which was in dispute, as it
would have interfered with the proper observance of a festival in
the city of Ur. The plaintiff in the suit was the chief of the temple
bakers, and it was his duty to superintend the preparation of certain
offerings for the occasion. In order that he should not have to leave
his duties, the king put off the hearing of the case until after the
festival had been duly celebrated.
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