Chedorlaomer, also spelled Kedorlaomer, is a king ofElam in Genesis 14. Genesis portrays him as allied with three other kings, campaigning against five Canaanite city-states in response to an uprising in the days of Abraham.
Etymology
The name Chedorlaomer is associated with familiar Elamite components, such as kudur, meaning "servant", and Lagamar, who was a high goddess in the Elamite pantheon. The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia stated that, apart from the fact that Chedorlaomer can be identified as a proper Elamite compound, all else is matter of controversy and "the records give only the rather negative result that from Babylonian and Elamite documents nothing definite has been learned of Chedorlaomer".
Background
Chedorlaomer's reign
After twelve years of being under Elamite rule, in the thirteenth year, the Cities of the Plain rebelled against Chedorlaomer. To put down the rebellion, he called upon three other allies from Shinar, Ellasar, and Tidal "nations" regions.
Chedorlaomer's campaigns
The following allies fought as allies of Chedorlaomer in the fourteenth year of his rule.
King Tidal of Goyim "nations" – possibly the Hittites
The purpose of Chedorlaomer's campaigns was to show Elam's might to all territories under Elamite authority. His armies and allies plundered tribes and cities, for their provisions, who were en route to the revolting cities of the Jordan plain.
Genesis 14:1 gives a list of four names: "It was in the time of Amraphel king of Shinar, Aricoch king of Ellasar, Chedor-laomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of the Goiim..." Traditionally these have been taken as four separate kings:.
Amraphel has been thought by some scholars such as the writers of the and the to be a corruption of the name of the famed Hammurabi. The name is also associated with Ibal Pi-El II of Esnunna.
has been thought to have been a king of Larsa It has also been suggested that it is URU KI, meaning "this place here".
Following the discovery of documents written in the Elamite language and Babylonian language, it was thought that Chedorlaomer is a transliteration of the Elamite compound Kudur-Lagamar, meaning servant of Lagamaru - a reference to Lagamaru, an Elamite deity whose existence was mentioned by Assurbanipal. However, no mention of an individual named Kudur Lagamar has yet been found; inscriptions that were thought to contain this name are now known to have different names.
Tidal has been considered to be a corruption or transliteration of Tudhaliya - either referring to the first king of the Hittite New Kingdom or the proto-Hittite king named Tudhaliya. With the former, the title king of Nations would refer to the allies of the Hittite kingdom such as the Ammurru and Mittani; with the latter the term "goyim" has the sense of "them, those people". al gives the sense of a people or tribe rather than a kingdom. Hence td goyim.
