Genesis 14:1

Khammurabi (? Amraphel), King of Babylon, receiving laws from Shamash, the Sun-god.

1 12. The Campaign

1. And it came to pass in the days of The opening formula of a new Hebrew section. Cf. Ruth 1:1; 2 Samuel 21:1; Esther 1:1; Isaiah 7:1.

Amraphel King of Shinar, very generally accepted as the Hebrew reproduction of the name Hammurabi, king of Babylonia about 2150 b.c. (?). On the assumption of this identification it has been conjectured that the last syllable of the name should be "-i" instead of "-el," i.e. Amraphi. For Shinar, see note on Genesis 10:10 and Genesis 11:2.

Hammurabi is famous as the king who finally freed his kingdom from the yoke of the Elamites, who united northern and southern Babylonia under one rule, and extended his conquests as far west as Palestine. Many cuneiform documents, belonging to his reign and referring to his government, have been discovered and deciphered, most remarkable and important of all being his Code of Laws 1 [15].

[15] Discovered in Dec. 1901 and Jan. 1902 by M. Le Morgan at Susa. See Driver's Exodus, Appendix III.

Arioch king of Ellasar Possibly the same as Rim-sinwho is said to be referred to in an ancient Sumerian record as Eri-Aku, son of Kudur-Mabug, king of Larsa, and a contemporary of Hammurabi. Ellasar is clearly the Babylonian town Larsa, which is identified with the ruins of the modern Senkerehon the E. bank of the Euphrates in S. Babylonia.

We meet with the name of Arioch in a Babylonian court-official (Daniel 2:15); and as a "king of the Elymaeans," a vassal of Nebuchadnezzar (Jdt 1:6).

Chedorlaomer King of Elam. The name has not hitherto been identified in the history of Western Asia. In its formation, however, it is genuinely Elamite, i.e. Kudur= "servant," and Lagamar= an Elamite deity. The supremacy of Elam over all that region of Western Asia about the time of Hammurabi is attested by the ancient documents. For Elam, see note on Genesis 10:22. It is the country called in the Assyrian Elamtu, and in the Greek Elymais, north of the Persian Gulf and east of the Lower Tigris. Its capital was Susa, which appears in the classical form of Susiana. On the overthrow of Elam by the Persians, see Jeremiah 49:34-39.

Tidal king of Goiim The attempts which have been made to identify Tidal have not yet been successful. But there is no reason to suppose that it is a fictitious name; and future research may bring his name to light. Goiimis the regular Hebrew word for "nations," and therefore seems to be very improbable as the name of a country or city. It may have been substituted by a Hebrew copyist for some unfamiliar proper name resembling it in pronunciation, or in shape of letters. Thus Sir Henry Rawlinson's conjecture of Gutimhas very generally found favour. The Gutiwere a people often mentioned in the inscriptions, living in the region of Kurdistan. Sayce suggests that Goiim may be correct as the Hebrew translation of the Assyrian Ummanmanda, the peoples, or nomad hordes, that constantly swept through those regions.