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CHEDORLAOMER

(Heb. kĕḏor-lāʿōmer)

The king of Elam mentioned in Gen. 14 who allied with the kings of Shinar, Ellasar, and Goiim against Sodom and Gomorrah and their allies. After serving Chedorlaomer for 12 years, the cities rebelled and Chedorlaomer retaliated, capturing both and taking their people, including Lot, as booty. Abraham with only 318 men surprised them in a night raid, freeing the captives and chasing the four kings out of the territory.

The four kings represent the major powers of the four quarters of the world in the ancient Near East: Chedorlaomer of Elam (East), Amraphel of Shinar (Babylon, South), Anrioch of Ellasar (Assur, North) and Tidal of Goiim (Hittites, West). While no battle or alliance of these kings is known, it fits the context of Gen. 10–12 well, where Yahweh promises a new nation is to be formed and established from Abraham’s descendants (Gen. 12:1-4). The area from which Chedorlaomer is driven by Abraham is a foreshadowing of the boundaries of the Davidic kingdom.

The name Chedorlaomer is seen as an Elamite name consisting of two elements, Kudur/Kutir, “son,” and Lagamar, an Elamite deity. No known Elamite king, however, bears that name. An alternative suggestion is that Chedorlaomer is a misreading of the name Ku.Ku.Ku.(Ku).Mal = KutirNuḥḥunte III (12th century) in the so-called Chedorlaomer texts, published by T. G. Pinches in 1894. The four kings of these texts who destroy Babylon and are repaid for their crimes by Marduk may be the model for the writer of Gen. 14 for all kings who would invade Israel.

Bibliography. M. C. Astour, “Political and Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis 14 and in Its Babylonian Sources,” in Biblical Motifs, ed. A. Altmann (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), 65-112.

Russell Nelson

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CHEDORLAOMER

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)