Why would it have been important to emphasize Hammurabi's connection to divinity?

Hammurabi was the sixth king of the Amorite Dynasty of Old Babylon, in the 18th century B.C. The Code of Hammurabi is one of the most famous legal codes surviving from the ancient Middle East.

It would have been important for Hammurabi to emphasize his connection to divinity primarily for reasons of credibility. He needed credibility to establish the legitimacy of his seminal Code of Law to gain acceptance by the people of Babylon. This concept is referred to as divine election[1]:

While there is no doubt that these claims represent royal self-promotion in an attempt to increase legitimacy, the general population of a given country presumably gave some credence to this brand of political theology.

Divine election in the context of the reign of King Hammurabi has received relatively little attention. Better known ancient and modern instances of divine election are the Pharaonic dynasties of ancient Egypt, the Emperor of Japan, and Queen Elizabeth II of England as head of the Anglican Church.

The Code of Hammurabi consisted of laws that had evolved over generations[2]. Regardless, it was important for the people of Babylon to perceive that King Hammurabi was wise, powerful, and actively doing the will of the gods[3], i.e. Marduk, the most prominent god of Babylon: 

Marduk was given supreme control of the earth and its inhabitants, Babylon was named and designated as the preeminent city, and Hammurabi was chosen to be king of Babylonia.

This is the preface written by 'mere' mortal King Hammurabi in the introduction to his Code[4],

The gods named me, Hammurabi, the pious prince, to make justice prevail, to abolish the wicked and the evil, to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak, to rise like the sun-god Shamash over all humankind, to illuminate the land.

So according to King Hammurabi, the actual 282 laws of the Code were given to him directly, due to divine election, by Shamash, the god of justice[5],

...with his shining face, who joyfully looked at me, Hammurabi, the prince, his favorite... whom Shamash has conferred the right of his law. My words are well considered; my deeds are not equaled; to bring low those that were high; to humble the proud, to expel insolence.

This is captured nicely in the image below. It is a photograph of the upper section of a 7.5 foot tall engraved diorite stele of King Hammurabi standing before the seated God of Justice, Shamash, light rays emanating from his shoulders.

Hammurabi receives his Code directly from the god of justice at the Louvre 
Photo: Christian Larrieu, Réunion des Musées Nationaux via Art Resource, New York.

All emphasis is mine.

EDIT: Here's a nice post that I found on Twitter, about the stele and its location.

pic.twitter.com/ZNp0BIcRUL

— ArchaeoHistories (@histories_arch) February 6, 2024

---

[1] Dale Launderville, Piety and Politics: The Dynamics of Royal Authority in Homeric Greece, Biblical Israel, and Old Babylonian Mesopotamia (Grand Rapids, MI: Erdman, 2003), pp 2–5.
[2] The Code of Hammurabi. Translated by L.W. King, 1915, Washington State University; excerpted from Reading About the World, Volume 1, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 used by permission of editor-in-chief Paul Brians for educational purposes.
[3] Dana M. Pike, "Before Jeremiah Was: Divine Election in the Ancient Near East,” in A Witness for the Restoration: Essays in Honor of Robert J. Matthews, ed. Kent P. Jackson and Andrew C. Skinner (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2007), pp 33–59.
[4] Martha T. Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, 2nd ed. (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997), pp. 76-77.
[5] ibid 2