Chedorlaomer

Chedorlaomer is the Elamite king at the head of the eastern coalition that swept the Jordan plain in the days of Abram. His campaign sets the only narrative frame in which his name occurs, and it is the occasion of the patriarch's first recorded military action.

The Coalition of Four Kings

The opening of the chapter aligns Chedorlaomer with three other rulers: "And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim" (Ge 14:1). The four make war on a southern coalition of five — "Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar)" — who had assembled in the valley of Siddim (Ge 14:2-3). For twelve years the cities of the plain had served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth they rebelled (Ge 14:4).

The Punitive Campaign

The fourteenth year brings the response. Chedorlaomer leads his allies on a wide arc through the Transjordan and Negev, striking peoples in succession: "the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, and the Horites in their mountain, Seir, to Elparan, which is by the wilderness" (Ge 14:5-6). The path turns back through Kadesh, where they "struck all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, who dwelt in Hazazon-tamar" (Ge 14:7), before converging on the rebel cities.

Battle in the Valley of Siddim

The five kings of the plain march out and array themselves "against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings against the five" (Ge 14:8-9). The terrain itself defeats them: "Now the valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell there, and those who remained fled to the mountain" (Ge 14:10). Chedorlaomer's forces strip the cities — "they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way" — and carry off Lot, "Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods" (Ge 14:11-12).

Abram's Pursuit and Rescue

Word of the captivity reaches Abram by an escapee, near the oaks of Mamre (Ge 14:13). The patriarch responds at once: "when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he mobilized his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued as far as Dan" (Ge 14:14). A night attack carries him beyond Damascus: "And he divided himself against them by night, he and his slaves, and struck them, and pursued them to Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus" (Ge 14:15). The recovery is total — "he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people" (Ge 14:16). Chedorlaomer's name does not recur after this defeat; the entire scriptural record of him is bound to the rise and breaking of his Transjordanian campaign.