Shaveh-kiriathaim

Shaveh-kiriathaim appears once in the UPDV (rendered there with a hyphen), named as the place where the eastern coalition under Chedorlaomer defeated the Emim in the campaign that runs through Genesis 14.

Where the Emim Were Struck

The early itinerary of Chedorlaomer's expedition lists the peoples he subdued before turning toward the cities of the Plain: "And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings who were with him, and struck the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim," (Ge 14:5). Shaveh-kiriathaim is paired with Ashteroth-karnaim and Ham as one of three locations on the same eastern sweep; each pairs a giant-stock people with the territory in which they were defeated. The text places the Emim there, in the country east of the Jordan that the campaign crossed before descending to engage the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah.