The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 272

EXPOSITION. CHAPTER XIV. mental evidence declares to have •reignccl over Babylon in the t1ventieth century il. o. ; Ver. 1.-Alld it came to pass. After and "Kudwrnanhundi the Elamite, the the separation of Abram and Lot, the latter worship of the great gods who did not fear," of whom now i.ppears as a citizen of Sodom, and the conqueror of Chaldrea, Jl. o. 2280; and not merely a settler in the J orda.n but in both instances the identifications .are circle ; perhaps about the eighty-fourth year prol;,lematical. The name Chedorlaomer .in of Abram's life (Hughes). The present chap- Babylonian would be Kudur-lagamer; but ter, "the oldest exta.nt record respecting as yet this name has not been found on the Abraham" (Ewald), bnt introduced into the inscriptions (vicle '. Records of the. Past;' Mosaic narrative by the J ehovistic editor vol: iii. pp. 7, 19). King of Elam. East of (Knobel, Tuch, Bleek, Davidson), possesses Babylonia., on the north.of the Persian Gulf traces of authenticity, of which not the least (cf. eh. x. 22). And Tide.I. "Fear, venera- is the chronological definition with which tion ' 1 (Gesenius); terror (Mu1yhy); '' splen- it commences (Hiivernick). In the days of dour, renown" (Fiirst); though the name may Amre.phel. Sanscrit, Amo-apala, keeper not be Shemitic. King of. nations. The Scy- of the gods (Gesenius); Arphazad (Fiirst); thians (Symmachus); the Galilean .heathen powerful people (Young, 'Analytical Con- (Clericus, Rosenmiiller,,Delitzsch), which a),'e cordance'); root unknown (Murphy, Kalisch). inappropriate in this ~onnection ; nomadic Xing of Bhina.r. Babel (Onkelos); Bat], races (Rawlinson); prob~bly some sm~lle,r dad (Arabic version of Erpenius) ; Pontus tribes so gradually subJugated . by T1da.l (Jonathan); the succeasor of Nimrod (vide as to render it "impossible to describe him eh. x. 10). Arioch. Sanscrit, .Ar:jaka, vener- briefly with any degree or accuracf" (Ka- ated (Bohlen, Gesenius, Fiirst); probably lisch). from the root '".I~, a lion, hence leonine Ver. 2.-That these made war. The LXX. (Geseniue, Murphyj. The name, which re- connect the ;.>resent with the preceding verse appears in Dnn. ii. 14, has been compared, by reading • thnt Arioch," &c.. Ewald in- though doubtfully, with the Urukh of the terpolntes "of Abram" before " that Amra- inscriptions (vide ' Records of the Past,' phcl." WithBora. "Gift"=ll'J"l~(Gesenius). vol. iiL p. 9). Xing of Elle.sa.r. PontUIJ King of Sodom. "Burning,. conflagration,'' (Symmachus, Yulgate); the region between as being. built on bituminous soil, nnd Babylon and Elymais (Gesenius); identified therefore subject to volcanic eruptions; !rom with Larsa or Laranka, the Aap11111a or Aa- o,o, conjectured to mean to bnrn (Gesenms). pax1,1v of the Greeks, now Senkereh, a town " I.fme place," or " enclosed place ; " frotn of Lower Babylonia, between Mu,gheir (Ur) iT'JC1, to surround (Fiirat). A mowitain with o.ncl W arl.;a (Erech), on the left bank of the Euphrates (Rawlinson). Chedorle.omer. A fossil salt at the pre,sent day is called Hfl.gv "handful of sheaves," if the word be Phce- Usdum; and Galen also knew of a S(!dom nicio-Shemitic, though probably its true mowitain. And with Birsha = V~"li etymology should be sought in ancient Pers "son of wickedness" (Gesenin~); ·" long 111!,d aian (Gesenius, Fiirst). The name has been thick" (Murphy); "strong, thick" (Fiirat)., detected byarchreologists in Kudur-mapula, King of Gomorr&h. roµ/Jt,pa (LXX.) ; per- the ltavager of the West, whom monu- hap" "culture, habitation" (Gesenius) •i OH, XlV, 1--12.] THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 203