What is the origin of the idiom an eye for an eye?

MeaningThe notion that for every wrong done there should be a commensurate justice, instead of wholesale retribution. OriginFrom the Code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi was King of Babylon, 1792-1750BC. The code survives today in the Akkadian language. Used in The Bible, Matthew 5:38 (King James Version):

Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.