Chedorla^dmer (Heb. kedorkO^mer^ ^^orb'n'is ; Sept. XoioKkoyouMQ, Josephus Xo^oXXo/u)poCt AnL i, 9, 1), a king pf Elam, who, in the time of Abraham, with three other chiefe, made war upob the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Zoar, and re- duced them to servitude (Gen. xiv, 1 sq.). B.C. dr. 2080. For twelve years he retained his hold over them ; in the thirteenth they rebelled ; in the next year, how- ever, he and his allies marched upon their country, and, after defeating many neighboring Iribee, encoun- tered the five kings of the plain in the vale of Siddim. He completely routed them, slew the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, and carried away much spoil, together with the fiimily of Lot (comp. Psa. ex). ChedorUomer seems to have perished in the rescue, which was effsct- ed by Abraham upon hearing of the captivity of his nephew (Gen. xiv, 17). According to Gesenius (7^^ Heb. p. 660 b), the meaning of the word may be ^hcmd^ ful ofJwxoeif ttom the Arabic hadara, han^iftd, and the Heb. ^^9, ihmf an etymology with which FOrst {Heb, Handw, s. y.) coincides; but this is little satis- factory. The name of a king is found upon the bricks recently discovered in Chaldaa, which is read KuduT" mcqmia. See Babtlon. This man has been sup- posed to be identical with Chedorlaomer, and the opin- k>n ia confirmed by the £eu^ that he is farther distin- guished by a title which may be translated " Ravager of the West.'* " As, however, one type alone of his legends has been discovered,'* says Colonel Rawlinson, " it is impossible to pronounce at present on the iden- tification. The second element in the name ' Chedor- laomer* is of course distinct firom that in * Kudur-ma- pula.* Its substitution may be thus accounted for. In the names of Babylonian khigs the latter portion is often dropped. Thus ^lalmaneser becomes Shalmaa in Hoshea ; Merodach-bal-adan becomes Mardocempal, etc Kiubtr-mapiUa might therefore become known as Kttdur simply. The Arabic epithet *el-Ahmar,* which means the R&dy may afterwards have been add- ed to the name, and may have been corrupted into Laomer, which, as the orthography now stands, has no apparent meaning. Kedar d-Ahmar^ or ' Kedar the Bed,* is in UkX a fiamous hero in Arabian tradition, and his history bears no inconsiderable resemblance to the Scripture narrative of Chedor-laomer. It is also very possible that the second element in the name of Chedor- laomer, whatever be its true form, may be a Shemitic translation of the original Hamite term maptda.'''' "Chedorlaomer may have been the leader of certain immigrant Chaldean Elamttes who founded the great ChaldsBan empfare of Berosus in the early part of the 20th [21st] century B.C., while Amraphel and Arioch, the Hamite kings of Shinar and Ellasar, who fought under his banner in the Syrian war as subordinate chiefs, and Tidal, who led a contingent of Median Scyths belonging to the old populatton, may haye been the local governors who had submitted to his power when he invaded Chaldssa** (Bawlhi8on*s Herod, i, 848, 856.— Smith, Diet. s. v.
Mr. Stuart Poole suppoees that the flnt invasion of
CHEEK
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IVtlettine hj ChedorUomer and his confedeniies caused the sheph^-kings to leave the East and settle in Egypt {Hora jEgifpt. p. 150). The narrative is strange- ly supposed by Uitzig (/V. ii, 176) to be a late fiction referring to the expedition of Sennacherib against Jemsalem (comp. Gen. xiv, 5, and 2 Kings zviii, 18). See, on the other side, Tuch (Genes, p. 808) ; Bertheau (fsrael. Getckichte^ p. 217). See Elam.
Cheek CT*^) l^cki% the jawj as often rendered ; atayuiv). Smiting npon the cheek is frequently spo- ken of in the Scriptores as a most grievous insult and injury (Job zvi, 10 ; Lam. iii, 80 ; Hie. v, 1 ; Luke vi, 29) ; and the incidental notices of modem travellers on this, as on other subjects, exhibit the literal accuracy of the language of the inspired writers. Lord Valen- tia, in his TraveU, alluding to one of his servants, says, " Davagd was deeply incensed ; nor oould I do more than induce him to come to \he factory on business while I was there, Mr. Pringle having, in one of his fits, struck him on the cheek with the sole of his slip- per." Sir W. Ouseley, speaking of the Persian court, remarks, ** When the vizir declared himself unable to procure the money, Fathh Ali Sliah reproached him for his crimes, struck him on the fiu^, and, with the high wooden heel of a slipper, always iron-bound, beat out several of his teeth." Boberts remarks that the Hindoo can bear almost any thing without emotion except slippering — ^that is, a stroke with the sole of a slipper or sand^ after a person has taken it off his foot and spit upon it: this is dreaded above all af- fronts, and considered as no less ignominious than spitting in the face or bespattering with dirt among Europeans. An angry man often says, *' I will beat thy cheek, thou low-caste fellow."
The term *'cAeeib-iofie," in Psa.. iii, 7, is used figura- tively, and presents the Psalmist surrounded by his en- emies as by a herd of wild beasts, and denotes their complete deprivation of the power of seizing upon or devouring their prey. In Joel i, 6, the "cAscA-tec^" (hi^in^, methaUedth^f grinders, of locusts are com- pared to those of a beast of prey.