CHAPTER VII.

CHEDORLAOMER.

Invasion from Shinar-Kings engaged-Chedorlaomer; his expedition against the West-Battle in the vale of Siddim-Defeat of the Sodomites and capture of Lot-His rescue by Abram-Dan-The King of Sodom-Melchizedek; Abram's dealings with him; his office and typical character.

A NEW Scene opens in the life of Abram. The father of the faithful appears himself as a powerful chief, and as the head of a confederacy of Canaanite princes, contesting with the great world-power of Elam. It is a most interesting and important episode, and, from internal evidence, seems to have been introduced by Moses into his narrative from some ancient Canaanitish or Babylonian document. Its accuracy, which had been questioned by sceptical writers, has been wonderfully confirmed by monumental discoveries, and we can now trace the personages and events of the history, and give its approximate date, with all the certainty that can be expected in a time

so remote.

Fourteen years before the period at which we have arrived, while Abram was still in Chaldæa, the kings of the East, under Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, had made an expedition into Syria, and, among other conquests, had reduced to subjection the inhabitants of the five cities in the Arabah-Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Bela or Zoar-called afterwards Pentapolis (Wisd. x. 6). Elam was a country on the east of Babylonia, including what is known as Susiana, and lying partly in the mountains and partly in the plain. It was occupied by a Turanian race of character totally distinct from the

Babylonians, with whom they were continually at war. Babylonia was itself split up into various kingdoms and unable to combine against the invading force; hence, it often happened that the Elamites obtained the superiority, and, for a time, exercised supreme power over the whole country. An Assyrian monarch, Assur-bani-pal, who is identified with Sardanapalus, records in one of his inscriptions' how that 1635 years before his own time, i.e., about B.C. 2280, a king of Elam, named Kurdur-nankhundi, had invaded Babylonia and carried away an image of the goddess Nana who was worshipped there. For many years subsequent to this event the Elamites retained their supremacy, and Chedorlaomer was probably a descendant of Kurdur-nankhundi, and was sovereign of the Babylonian kings who are mentioned with him in Gen. xiv. I. These kings are evidently named from accurate accounts in national annals. First comes Amraphel, king of Shinar, or Southern Babylonia, whom the Septuagint calls Amarphal, and whose name, though not actually identified in any inscription, contains, according to Professor Sayce, the same element as that of a monumental king called Amar-Aku. Priority is given to him as representative of the great kingdom founded by Nimrod, from whom some writers make him fourth in succession. Next, we have Arioch, king of Ellasar, whom the Vulgate calls "Rex Ponti." Ellasar is Larsa, a town on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, a little to the south-east of Erech or Warka, and now marked by the mounds of Senkereh.3 Arioch ruled over that portion of Southern Chaldæa not comprised in the kingdom of Amraphel. The name Arioch occurs as that of a Babylonian in Dan. ii. 14. It is, with some reason, supposed to be identified with the Accadian Eri-Aku, "servant of the Moon-god," who, in an inscription found at Mugheir, and now in the British Museum, calls himself the son of Kudur-Mabuk, "King of Elam,” and “ Father of the West," i.e. Syria. Kudur and Eri are equivalent terms, meaning " servant"; the former being an Elamite word, the latter an Accadian. Kudur ap

"Fresh Light

G. Smith, "History of Babylonia," p. 97 f. Sayce, from the Monuments," p. 47 f. ; "Monthly Interpreter," iii. 463 f.

..

2 Schrader, Die Keilinschriften des Alt. Test.," p. 135 ff. Rawlinson, "Egypt and Babylon," pp. 14-16.

3 Loftus, pp. 240, 256. Schrader, p. 135. See above, p. 20.

4 "Monthly Interpreter," ubi supra.

pears as a component part of many Elamite names, and the Biblical Chedorlaomer, or, according to the Septuagint, Chodollogomor, is really Kudur-Lagamar, "the servant of Lagamar," an Elamite deity, just as Kudur-Mabuk means the servant of" the goddess "Mabuk." It is not unlikely that Chedorlaomer and Kudur-Mabuk were brothers, and that Arioch was appointed by the former as vassal-king of Sumer, or Southern Babylonia. The fourth monarch mentioned is, according to our version, "Tidal, King of Nations," whom Symmachus terms "King of the Scythians"; and others, chief of certain nomad tribes; and others, again, Prince of "Galilee of the nations." But the Hebrew word rendered "nations," Goyyim, is, as Sir H. Rawlinson supposes, doubtless a misreading for Gotim, that is Gutium, which is a tract of country north of Babylonia, stretching to the mountains of Kurdistan, and containing within its boundaries what was afterwards the kingdom of Assyria. The inhabitants of this region are often mentioned in the Assyrian Inscriptions as Guti or Kuti. Tidal, in the Septuagint written Thargal or Thalga, is explained by the Accadian tar-gal, "great judge," or tur-gal, "mighty youth." To relegate this episode to the realms of myth or parable, as is done by certain German critics, is to deny historical facts, and to refuse assent to conclusions quite satisfactory to unprejudiced minds. There is nothing unprecedented in this irruption from the East. This was not the first time that Accadian invaders had turned their arms towards the setting sun. Long before this time Sargon I. and his son Naram-Sin had made expeditions into Syria; they had met with considerable opposition, but had succeeded in penetrating to the Mediterranean Sea, and have left carved tablets on the coast. They even crossed over into the island of Cyprus. Kudur-Mabug is called "the father of the west country," by which expression is meant that he claimed supremacy over Canaan. It is true that neither Babylonians nor Assyrians affix the name of Canaan to this country; it is with them "the western or "hinder country"; but we know that this term included Tyre, Sidon, and Samaria, Edom and Philistia, and a

"Fresh Light from the Monuments," p. 48. "Babyl. Lit." p. 23. Lenormant, "Lang. Prim." 361. Dillmann, on Gen. xiv. I.

G. Smith, "History of Babylonia," p. 85.

region that extended to the Mediterranean. ' In the course of one of these expeditions, Chedorlaomer had established his authority in the plain of Jordan, and maintained it for twelve years. His object, doubtless, was to keep open communications with the rival kingdom of Egypt, the great route to which country crossed the Arabah towards the neighbourhood of Pentapolis. It was of consequence in the eyes of these Elamite invaders that the petty kingdoms along this road should own their supremacy. Whether the five cities were situated at the north or south of the Dead Sea, they lay in the way of armies marching from Damascus to Egypt, and had it in their power to impede or to assist the troops that passed their limits. When Lot took up his residence in the plain, the Sodomites owned the suzerainty of the Elamite monarch; but at the end of the period mentioned above, the five kings of Pentapolis, having entered into a mutual alliance, revolted, and refused to pay the customary tribute. But punishment soon overtook them. Chedorlaomer, with his three tributary kings, marched against them. Taking the usual route from the Euphrates to Syria, he and his allies fell first on the Rephaim in Basan (Gen. xiv. 5), one of the aboriginal tribes of the country, whose capital, Astaroth (hod. Tell 'Asherah), was about four miles from Edrei; thence, turning south, they attacked the Zuzim who dwelt between the Arnon and Jabbok, and the Emim cf Kiriathaim, in Moab. The Horites, or cave-dwellers of Petra and Mount Seir, next felt their arms; then turning northward by Kadesh, they overran the land of the Amalekites and Amorites, and thus arrived at the Cities of the Plain, whose punishment they had reserved to the last. Then the five kings met the four in the vale of Siddim, "the salt valley," as the LXX. call it. It was probably situated at the south end of the Dead Sea, and a late traveller 2 has drawn attention to the Arabic word sidd, which the dwellers in the Jordan valley apply to the cliffs or banks of marl which exist in the neighbourhood. The older explanation makes Siddim the plural of the Hebrew word sadeh, "a plain." Here they made their stand, expecting that the pits of bitumen with which the place abounded would prove a protection to them and a snare to the enemy, whose cavalry and chariots would be seriously impeded

by these obstacles.

But their hopes were miserably frustrated. The luxurious and enervated dwellers in the valley of Jordan could ill withstand the hardened and skilful warriors of Chaldæa. The wells on which they relied as a defence proved their destruction when once their line was broken. All order was lost, and their defeat was certain and complete. They fell themselves into their own "slime-pits," which were of great depth in some places, and the existence of which is attested to this day by the rise of floating masses of bitumen from the southern angle of the Dead Sea, under whose waters the vale of Siddim ("which is the salt sea,” chap. xiv. 3) is, with good reason, thought to be submerged. There exist also in the same locality morasses, in which animals are often lost. So the kings fled, and he of Sodom escaped to the neighbouring mountains of Moab where the pursuers could not follow him. But the enemy plundered the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, took all the goods and all the provisions that were found there, and, as the Septuagint adds, all the war-horses (vers. 11, 21), of whose efficacy in chariots of iron the Israelites in after years had terrible proof. They carried off Lot also, who had ceased to dwell in tents and had a fixed habitation in the city. He had chosen for himself, and he must take the consequences; he had joined with the Sodomites, and had to share the evils that came upon them. He is taken captive, and would have had to spend the rest of his life in bondage had not deliverance arisen to him from Abram.

Bearing their plunder with them, the conquerors marched on their homeward way, taking their course northwards up the valley of the Jordan. Abram was still sojourning at Mamre when news of this raid reached him. Some of the survivors, knowing his interest in Lot, and recognizing in him the head of a powerful tribe, hurry to him with their intelligence. He is equal to the occasion. He hesitates not a moment. Though, as the account (evidently an original document) calls him a "Hebrew," a stranger from beyond the river, he is not without friends and allies in this home of his adoption. Three powerful Amorite chiefs-Mamre, Aner, and Eshcol-were, as we have seen above, confederate with him. He calls them to his aid. However unwilling to mix himself with military affairs or to interfere in such secular matters, here was a case that imperatively claimed his attention. His own near relative, his "brother" as the record calls him,