The Kings of the North.

THE KINGS OF THE NORTH

The narrative in Genesis 14 about the four kings who came to attack the five kings of the “cities on the plain” is the oldest military tradition preserved in the Bible. It contains pre-Israelite geographical data exemplified by the double names of most of the towns, e.g. “Bela, that is Zoar.” Besides a reverence for that ancient tradition, there is a concern that the reader be able to orient himself geographically; thus the venerable names are updated by contemporary Israelite names. None of the characters mentioned have been identified with known historical figures. Amraphel can by no means be equated with ‘Ammurapi, the Amurrite king of Babylon; Chedorlaomer has an Elamite look to it but has no exact parallel among known Elamite names. Tidal does match the alphabetic spelling of the name of known Hittite kings, conventionally spelled Tudkhaliya. Two of the geographical names are well known: Shinar (southern Mesopotamia; originally Shanghar; the land otherwise known as Sumer, the home of the Sumerians) and Elam (the national homeland in the hill country to the east of the lower Tigris Valley, in western Iran). Ellasar is unknown, nor have Sodom, Gomorrah or the other towns appeared in ancient Near Eastern documents (certainly not from Ebla).

Article abstract from The Sacred Bridge