chedorlaomer Summary and Overview

(= Khudur-Lagamar of the inscriptions), king of Elam. Many centuries before the age of Abraham, Canaan and even the Sinaitic peninsula had been conquered by Babylonian kings, and in the time of Abraham himself Babylonia was ruled by a dynasty which claimed sovereignity over Syria and Israel. The kings of the dynasty bore names which were not Babylonian, but at once South Arabic and Hebrew. The most famous king of the dynasty was Khammu-rabi, who united Babylonia under one rule, and made Babylon its capital. When he ascended the throne, the country was under the suzerainty of the Elamites, and was divided into two kingdoms, that of Babylon (the Biblical Shinar) and that of Larsa (the Biblical Ellasar). The king of Larsa was Eri-Aku ("the servant of the moon-god"), the son of an Elamite prince, Kudur-Mabug, who is entitled "the father of the land of the Amorites." A recently discovered tablet enumerates among the enemies of Khammu-rabi, Kudur-Lagamar ("the servant of the goddess Lagamar") or Chedorlaomer, Eri-Aku or Arioch, and Tudkhula or Tidal. Khammu-rabi, whose name is also read Ammi-rapaltu or Amraphel by some scholars, succeeded in overcoming Eri-Aku and driving the Elamites out of Babylonia. Assur-bani-pal, the last of the Assyrian conquerors, mentions in two inscriptions that he took Susa 1635 years after Kedor-nakhunta, king of Elam, had conquered Babylonia. It was in the year B.C. 660 that Assur-bani-pal took Susa.

(handful of sheaves), a king of Elam, in the time of Abraham, who with three other chiefs made war upon the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim and Zoar, and reduced them to servitude. #Ge 14:17|

CHEDORLA'OMER (handful of sheaves), the king of Elam, and one of the four allied kings who subjected the kings of the five cities of the plain. These remained in the service of Chedorlaomer for twelve years, but in the thirteenth rebelled. Chedorlaomer summoned the allies, met the five kings, completely routed them, carried off much spoil, part of which belonged to Lot, whom they likewise captured. Abram started in pursuit with his own servants, defeated them, was able to recover all the spoil and his nephew Lot. In the battle Chedorlaomer appears to have perished. The narrative is given in Gen 14.

Genesis 14. King of Elam, who for twelve years had in subjection to him the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela, or Zoar. In the 13th they revolted, whereupon he, with his subordinate allies, the kings of Shinar (Babylonia), and Ellasar, and Tidal, "king of nations" (Median Scyths, belonging to the old population) smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzims in Ham, the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim, the Horites in mount Seir, the Amalekites, and the Amorites in Hazezon Tamar; and finally encountered and defeated the five allied kings in the vale of Siddim. Among the captives whom he took was Lot. Abraham with 318 armed servants however defeated him in turn, and rescued Lot, and pursued the invader to Hobah on the left of Damascus. A recently deciphered record states that an Elamite king, Kudur-Nakhunta, conquered Babylon about 2290 B.C. Assurbanipal, king of Assyria 668 B.C., recovered an image of Nana captured by the Elamires from Uruk = Erech 1635 years previously, i.e. 2286. Babylonian documents of the age 2200-2100 B.C. also allude to an interruption in the native dynasty about this date by a king from Elam or Susiana between the Tigris and Persia. There is mentioned among the Babylonian kings one who held his court at Ur in Lower Chaldaea, an Elamite prince, Kudur-Mabuk (or Chedorlaomer; Lagomer being an Elamite goddess of which Mabuk is the Hamitic name). Kudur is thought to mean mother, i.e. attendant or worshipper of Lagomer. Kudur the king bears in the inscriptions the surname Apda Martu, "the ravager of the West." He did not establish a lasting empire over Syria, as his Assyrian and Babylonian successors, but was simply its "ravager," exactly as the Bible represents him. He was Semitic, and had made himself lord paramount over the Hamite kings of Shinar and Ellasar.