(4) Abraham and the Early Kings. In time, Abraham at the command of God moved farther to the Mediterranean coast, and wandered over the land of Canaan. It was while he was there that the invasion of Palestine occurred, led by Chedorlaomer, or, as his Elamite name would be, Kudur-Lagamar, meaning the servant of the goddess Lagamar, who, perhaps, represented the Dawn, and a name parallel to that of his great predecessor, Kudur-Nahunta.
Kudur-Nahunta's son was Simti-Shilhak, who was the father of Kudur-Mabug, who was the father of Eri-Aku (in Semitic, Rim-Sin) of Larsa, probably the Arioch, king of Ellasar, who was one of those who made the raid on Canaan (see ARIOCH) with Chedorlaomer (Kudur-La gamar), king of Elam.
We do not know just what was the extent and purpose of this invasion, but we may be sure that the Semite Abraham, who had been driver, by the Elamites out of his ancestral home, had no good will towards the house of Kudur-Na hunta, nor any of his successors.
He lived at some distance from the rich cities which were attacked, and was personally safe; but he was not only glad to rescue his nephew Lot, but also to avenge as far as possible the injuries which he and his father had suffered, and which made them wanderers from their early home. The opportunity was offered on the re treat. We must not imagine Abraham, with his three hundred and eighteen men, as attacking the combined army of the invaders. What he prob ably did was to follow and surprise a separate detachment which had lingered to attack and spoil Sodom, or had charge of prisoners. These
were suddenly overcome, and the prisoners and spoil retaken (Gen. xiv :14-16). (See ABRAHAM ; Lor.) Kudur-Lagamar is the last one of this line of Elamite or Mongolian kings ruling over Baby lonia that is known to us. It is supposed by some that Amraphel, king of Shinar, who was also in the invasion of Kudur-Lagamar (Che dorlaomer) is the same as Hammurabi, who later drove out the Elamites and restored a Semitic line of rulers and who reigned until about 1600 B. C. (See A MRAPHEL.) Another Elamite or Kassite dynasty conquered Babylonia and held it for some 30o years.
Such a wide view of early Oriental history as we have taken explains not only the relations of Abraham to the politics of Ur of the Chaldees, and the reason for his hostility to the Elamites, but it also explains the fact, so surprising to scholars, of the wide use of the cuneiform writ ing in Palestine, a few centuries later, as proved by the Tel-Amarna tablets. (See TEL-AMARNA TABLETS.) The Elamites used the cuneiform script.
This raid of Kudur-Lagamar was one of a large number which brought Canaan under the rule of Elam and Babylonia, but not with the nearer Egypt. Its literature and writing were Babylonian, not Egyptian. We may not be sur prised if we learn that its religion, and its notions of cosmogony, and all its faiths and legends were closely allied to those of Babylonia. (See Dem ONSTRATIONS, page 470.) (See Chedorlaomer and Abraham, William Hayes Ward, D. D., Horn. July, 1894; Price, The Monuments and the Old Testament, pp. tot, 293.)