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The Rebellion of the Valley Kings
v. 1. And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of nations,
v. 2. that these made war with Bera, king of Sodom, and with Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, and Shemeber, king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar. Those were the days of the city-states, just before the rise of the great Eastern nations. According to contemporary documents, Amraphel of Shinar is to be identified with Ammu-rabi, or Khammurabi, king of Sumer, who shortly afterward founded the early Babylonian empire; Arioch of Ellasar was probably Eri-Aku, king of Larsa, a south Babylonian city-state; Chedorlaomer was Kudur-Lagamor, a near successor of Simti Shilkhak, mentioned in ancient records of Elam, or Elymais; and Tidal, king of Goiim, or nations, was Tudhkhulu, king of Gutium, in the southwestern part of what was afterward Amraphel's territory. These four kings had formed a confederacy for the purpose of extending their power and to that end waged war with the five kings of the vale of Siddim, in the southeastern part of Canaan, where their city-states also formed a confederacy.
v. 3. All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the Salt Sea. At the time when this history was written, the vale of Siddim was no longer in existence, its former fruitful fields being covered by the waters of the Dead Sea. Cf Gen_19:24-25.
v. 4. Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled. Chedorlaomer at that time was the head of the northern confederacy, and therefore the rebellion of the southern kings and their refusal to pay tribute is represented as being directed against him.
v. 5. And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim,
v. 6. and the Horites in their Mount Seir, unto Elparan, which is by the wilderness.
v. 7. And they returned and came to Enmishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Hazezontamar. It was a campaign of revenge and conquest which the kings of the northern, or Babylonian, confederacy undertook under the leadership of Chedorlaomer. Coming down with their armies, they took their way over Damascus and then turned south through the country east of the Jordan. They first gained a decisive victory over the Rephaim, a tribe of giants then living in the highlands of Bashan, their capital being Ashteroth Karnaim, "the two horned Ashteroth. " They next conquered the Zuzim, also a race of giants, occupying the eastern tableland, south of Bashan and Gilead. Continuing southward, the Babylonian armies overthrew the armies of the Emim, "the terrible ones," whose capital was Shaveh Kiriathaim, "the dale of the two cities. " The last country to yield to the conquerors was that of the Horim, a race of cave-dwellers south of what was afterward the Dead Sea. Chedorlaomer now turned back toward the west and north, invaded the country afterward occupied by the Amalekites, with the capital Kadesh Barnea, and that of the Amorites, who lived just east of the Sea of the Plain, afterward the Dead Sea. Both nations were conquered by the armies of the northern confederacy. It was the first of a long series of campaigns of conquest that were conducted by the ancient empires of the Euphrates Valley.