Chedorlaomer (Hebrew: כְדָרְלָעומֶר) is the name of the main figure in a narrative within Genesis concerning a civil war in Canaan. In the narrative (Genesis 14), Chedorlaomer is described as a king of Elam, who made conquests as far west as Canaan and exercised supremacy over its southeastern part. After paying tribute to him for twelve years, in the following year the local kings of the cities of the plain rebelled, but the year after the rebellion Chedorlaomer and three allies / vassals defeated the rebellion. Hebrew redirects here. ... Genesis (Greek: Γένεσις, having the meanings of birth, creation, cause, beginning, source and origin) is the first book of the Torah, the first book of the Tanakh and also the first book of the Christian Old Testament. ... For other uses, see Canaan (disambiguation). ... Elam (Persian: ایلام) is one of the most ancient civilizations on record. ... For other uses, see Canaan (disambiguation). ... In the Bible, Sodom and Gomorrah (עֲמוֹרָה, Standard Hebrew , Tiberian Hebrew , ) —were two cities destroyed by God for their sins. ... Look up vassal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

According to the biblical narrative, Chedorlaomer's forces seized Lot, and when Abraham the Hebrew discovered this (due to a message from a fugitive), he amassed an army and lead them against Chedorlaomer. Abraham's forces secured victory, and recovered the spoils taken by Chedorlaomer. The king of Sodom, one of the rebels, then went out to meet Abraham, and Melchizedek brought bread and wine to Abraham, and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tithe. The king of Sodom then offered to give up his own share of the spoils in return for his subjects, but Abraham refused to take anything from the king of Sodom. Lot is: Place Specific - A French département, see Lot (département) A French river, a tributary of the Garonne, see Lot River A Belgian town, see Lot, Belgium A Polish Airline, see LOT Polish Airlines Character Specific - A Biblical figure, the nephew of Abraham, see Lot (Biblical) Lot, a... It has been suggested that Abraham (Hebrew Bible) be merged into this article or section. ... The word Hebrew most likely means to cross over, referring to the Semitic people crossing over the Euphrates River. ... Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek — by Dieric Bouts the Elder, 1464–67 Melchizedek or Malki-tzédek (מַלְכִּי־צֶדֶק / מַלְכִּי־צָדֶק, Standard Hebrew Malki-ẓédeq / Malki-ẓádeq, Tiberian Hebrew Malkî-ṣéḏeq / Malkî-ṣāḏeq), sometimes written Malchizedek, Melchisedec, Melchisedech, Melchisedek or Melkisedek, is a figure mentioned by the Hebrew Bible, in the Book of Genesis... A tithe (from Old English teogoþa tenth) is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a (usually) voluntary contribution or as a tax or levy, usually to support a Jewish or Christian religious organization. ...

The rebels are named as:

• Shinab, king of Admah
• an unnamed king of Bala-Zoar
• Birsha, king of Gomorrah
• Bera, king of Sodom
• Shemeber, king of Zeboyim

Chedorlaomer's allies are named as: Chedorlaomer (Hebrew: כְדָרְלָעומֶר) is the name of the main figure in a narrative within Genesis concerning a civil war in Canaan. ... Categories: Hebrew Bible/Tanakh-related stubs | Torah places ... Chedorlaomer (Hebrew: כְדָרְלָעומֶר) is the name of the main figure in a narrative within Genesis concerning a civil war in Canaan. ... Sodom redirects here. ... In the Bible, Sodom and Gomorrah (עֲמוֹרָה, Standard Hebrew , Tiberian Hebrew , ) —were two cities destroyed by God for their sins. ... Chedorlaomer (Hebrew: כְדָרְלָעומֶר) is the name of the main figure in a narrative within Genesis concerning a civil war in Canaan. ... This entry incorporates text from the public domain Eastons Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897. ...

• Amraphel, king of Shinar
• Arioch, king of Ellasar
• Tidal, king of nations (a few translations instead render this as king of Goyim, taking Goyim to be a proper noun)

In the Tanakh or Old Testament, Amraphel was a king of Shinar (Babylonia, broadly speaking) in Genesis xiv. ... Shinar (Hebrew שנער, Septuagint Senaar) is a broad designation applied to Mesopotamia, occurring eight times in the Hebrew Bible. ... Arioch originally appears in the Book of Genesis chap. ... Larsa (possibly the Biblical Ellasar, Genesis 14:1), was an important city of ancient Mesopotamia. ... Chedorlaomer (Hebrew: כְדָרְלָעומֶר) is the name of the main figure in a narrative within Genesis concerning a civil war in Canaan. ... Goy is a Hebrew word meaning nation or people. The first use of Goy (plural, Goyim) in the Hebrew Bible is in Genesis 10:1, in reference to non-Israelite nations. ... A noun, or noun substantive, is a word or phrase that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality. ...

Textual features

The narrative is generally regarded by textual scholars as having been from the Yahwist text, but also as having been an independent document prior to that, from an unknown source; the narrative is regarded by scholars as somewhat anomalous due to its markedly different linguistic style and subject matter compared to the remainder of the Abraham cycle, or to the rest of Genesis. In addition, the brief passage concerning Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18-20) is regarded as having been from a separate source, and crudely inserted into the narrative by the Yahwist, interrupting the description of the conversation between the king of Sodom and Abraham. Textual criticism or lower criticism is a branch of philology or bibliography that is concerned with the identification and removal of errors from texts. ... The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ... Look up saga in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

A further curious feature is that Abraham abruptly appears at a late point in the narrative, and is referred to as the Hebrew, a turn of phrase more common for authors who are not themselves a Hebrew; scholars regard this as indicating that the narrative originates from an non-Israelite source, or one from a time before Hebrews were regarded as synonymous with Israelites. Also, this is notably the only biblical narrative in which Abraham takes on the role of a national leader in his own time, rather than the role of an eponym or of an individual; it is also the only narrative of Genesis (and hence of the Abraham cycle) that refers to the wider world^[1]. The Twelve Tribes redirects here. ... An eponym is the name of a person, whether real or fictitious, which has (or is thought to have) given rise to the name of a particular place, tribe, discovery or other item. ... Look up saga in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Identities

Since the discovery of documents written in the Elamite language and Babylonian language, it has been generally acknowledged that Chedorlaomer is a transliteration of the Elamite compound Kudur-Lagamar, meaning servant of Lagamaru - a reference to Lagamaru, an Elamite deity whose existence was mentioned by Assurbanipal. No mention of an individual named Kudur Lagamar has however been found; inscriptions that were thought to contain this name are now known to be have different names (the confusion arose due to similar lettering)^[2]. Elamite is an extinct language, which was spoken in the ancient Elamite Empire. ... Akkadian was a language of the Semitic family spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, particularly by the Assyrians and Babylonians. ... A god of the Elamite pantheon. ... Assurbanipal in a relief from the north palace at Nineveh There were several Assyrian kings named Assur-bani-pal, also spelled Asurbanipal, Assurbanipal (most commonly), Ashurbanipal and Ashshurbanipal, but the best known was Assurbanipal IV.  Ashurbanipal, or Assurbanipal, (reigned 668 - 627 BCE), the son of Esarhaddon and Naqia-Zakutu...

As for Chedorlaomer's allies; Amraphel was once thought by most scholars to be a corruption of the name of the famed Hammurabi, but this is now considered implausible, and doubly doubtful since at least three kings named that are now known to have ruled Canaanite city states; Arioch was once thought to have been a king of Larsa (Ellasar being a corruption of this), but is now thought to be more likely to have been Ariukki, a Hurrian king; and Tidal is now considered to be a corruption or transliteration of Tudhaliya - either referring to the first king of the Hittite New Kingdom (Tudhaliya I) or the proto-Hittite king named Tudhaliya^[3]. With the former, the title king of Nations would possibly thus refer to the historic conquest of much of Asia Minor by Tudhaliya, with the latter it is unclear to what this title refers. This diorite head is believed to represent Hammurabi Hammurabi (Akkadian from Amorite ˤAmmurāpi, the kinsman is a healer, from ˤAmmu, paternal kinsman, and Rāpi, healer; 1810 BC?–1750 BC) also rarely transliterated Ammurapi, Hammurapi, or Khammurabi) was the sixth king of Babylon. ... Larsa (the Biblical Ellasar, Genesis 14:1), was an important city of ancient Babylonia, the site of the worship of the sun-god, Shamash, represented by the ancient ruin mound of Senkereh (Senkera). ... The word Hurrian may refer to: An ancient people of the Near East, the Hurrians. ... Hittite can refer to either: The ancient Anatolian people called the Hittites; or The Hittite language, an ancient Indo-European language they spoke. ... Hittites is the conventional English-language term for an ancient people who spoke an Indo-European language and established a kingdom centered in Hattusa (Hittite URU) in north-central Anatolia from the 18th century BC. In the 14th century BC, the Hittite Empire was at its height, encompassing central Anatolia... See Tudhaliya for the (unnumbered) pre-Empire Hittite king. ... See Tudhaliya I and Tudhaliya II for the kings of the Empire of the same name. ... Anatolia (Greek: ανατολη anatole, rising of the sun or East; compare Orient and Levant, by popular etymology Turkish Anadolu to ana mother and dolu filled), also called by the Latin name of Asia Minor, is a region of Southwest Asia which corresponds today to...

Dating of the events

In the biblical account, the text begins in the days of, but the remainder of the sentence is missing, and is not found in any surviving manuscript (some modern translations run this sentence together with the next to bridge the gap)^[4]. The missing text would have helped to identify the date range for the events described by the narrative, and, aside from deliberately obscuring the date (perhaps because it proved inconvenient), it is unclear why the text would be missing. The tentative identifications of Tidal, however, enables the date period to be somewhat determined:

• Assuming Tidal is the proto-Hittite Tudhaliya, this would place the events of the narrative in the 18th century BC, shortly prior to the rise of the Hyksos Empire
• Assuming Tidal is Tudhaliya I (of the Hittite New Kingdom), this would place the events of the narrative in the 14th century BC.

Near Eastern writings from both periods make clear that the general geo-political situation of the region during the later period is more in accordance with the accounts in Genesis than the situation in the earlier period. However, many Exodus datings exist, from 1800 BC all the way to 1200 BC, meaning one can not jump to a conclusion about the dating of the events. In addition, these may not be the only valid dates. Hence neither dating (if either is correct) is entirely indicative of Biblical accuracy.^[5]. The Hyksos (Egyptian heka khasewet meaning foreign rulers, Greek ) were an ethnically mixed group of Southwest Asiatic or Semitic people who appeared in the eastern Nile Delta during the Second Intermediate Period. ...

Notes and Citations

1. ^ Peake's commentary on the Bible, New American Bible footnote on Genesis 14:13
2. ^ This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.
3. ^ Peake's commentary ...
4. ^ New American Bible, footnote for Genesis 14:1; et al.
5. ^ Peake's commentary...

In 1970, the New American Bible (NAB) was first published. ... The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... In 1970, the New American Bible (NAB) was first published. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Bibliography

• L. W. King, Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi, 1898, vol. i.
• Schrader, Keilinschriften des Alten Testaments, 2d ed., pp. 135 et seq.;
• (compare paper read by Pinches before the Victoria Institute) Jan. 20, 1896;
• This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.