Amraphel

Who is Amraphel?

In the Tanakh or Old Testament, Amraphel was a king of Shinar in Genesis xiv.1 and 9, who invaded the west along with Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and others, and defeated Sodom and the other Cities of the Plain in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim.

Beginning with E. Schrader this king was usually associated with Hammurabi, who ruled Babylonia from 1792 BC until his death in 1750 BC. However, according to The Oxford Companion to the Bible, this view has been largely abandoned in recent years. In Hammurabi's time, the entire former region of Sumer had come to be named Babylonia after the city of Babylon. However, the account of Abraham in Genesis takes place at a time when Amraphel is identified as a king of Shinar, not "Babylonia" — although Babel had previously been mentioned as one of the locations within Shinar.

In past centuries, it was fashionable to identify Amraphel with Aralius, one of the names on the later Babylonian king-lists, attributed first to Ctesias. According to John Van Seters in Abraham in History and Tradition, the existence of Amraphel is unconfirmed by any sources outside the Bible.