AMRAPHEL, King of Shinar (=Sumer, the Sumerian or south Babylonian plain), a monarch mentioned in Gen. xiv as an ally of Chedorlaomer, King of Elam, in subduing his revolted Palestinian vassals. Two other allied kings are named: Arioch of Ellasar (Larsa, South Babylonia) and Tidal of Goiim (trans lated ((nations° in Authorized Version; identi fied by some with Gutium in Media, by others with "the tribes° = the wandering Kurds). Neither of the names nor any mention of the raid is found on the inscriptions; and the ex pedition, with its capture of Lot and the suc cessful recapture by Abraham, has no critical standing. Nevertheless it is most interesting historically; for the non-Jewish names are ap parently genuine, and the conditions are pre cisely those of the times which the names would imply. Arioch would correspond to the Babylonian Eriaku, supposed to be found in a fragmentary epic on the invasion of Babylonia; Tid 'al to a Tudhkula or Tudhghula also said to be recognizable there; and Chedor laomer to Kudur-Laghamar, the first half of which is found in other Elamite royal names, as Kudur-Mabuk, etc., and the last is probable.
As to Amraphel, he is very plausibly Hammu rabi (q.v.), the great revivor of the Babylonian monarchy about 2250, after its conquest by t:ie Elamites; or rather Hammurabi-ilu (the divine name el or ilu added, as common in Babylonian and Egyptian; cf. Joseph-el and Jacob-el against the Hebrew Joseph and Jacob), or perhaps Hammu-rapaltu, a probably dialectic variant of Kimta-rapashtu actually found written. Chedor laomer's expedition is like other known ones of Babylonian kings against the lands west of the Mediterranean, which they claimed as tributary. But there is a closer verisimilitude, which makes it practically certain that the substance of the story was taken from a Babylonian tab let describing an actual occurrence; Amraphel in the story is a subordinate ally of Chedor laomer and the historical Hammurabi was ap parently a dependent sub-king of Babylon under the Elamites before he threw off their yoke. The added Abraham story may represent a tradition welded with the other in later times.