BIBLE DICTIONARY + WORD STUDY
How to read this: there is rarely one magic “true meaning” hidden behind an English word. A lexicon records a word’s semantic range. The intended meaning is narrowed by grammar, sentence, author, historical usage and context.
HEBREW / ARAMAIC · H569
am.ra.phel — Amraphel
A man living at the time of the Patriarchs, first mentioned at Gen.14.1 § Amraphel = "sayer of darkness: fall of the sayer" the king of Shinar (Babylon) (perhaps Hammurabi c 2100 BC)
2 tagged verse occurrences · see every occurrence →King of Shinar, southern Chaldea, one of the confederates of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, in a war against Sodom and cities of the plain (Gen. 14:1, 4). It is now found that Amraphel (or Ammirapaltu) is the Khammu-rabi whose name appears on recently-discovered monuments. (See CHEDORLAOMER). After defeating Arioch (q.v.) he united Babylonia under one rule, and made Babylon his capital.
Source: Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897). Historical dictionary wording reflects the scholarship and language of its era.
