Amraphel "the underestimated king."

 In previous post I have mentioned the event know as the battle of the vale of Siddim or the battle of the nine kings. Where king Chedorlaomer of Elam had subdued Sodom and the other cities of the plain. We know from Genesis 14that Chedorlaomer allied with other Mesopotamian kings in a campaign to regain the control of the plains. At the beginning of the chapter we can notice that the narration in located in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, for that reason, why should be important to mention such king in this narration? According to the The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Shinar is believed to be the ancient city of Babylon and in consequence Amraphel is believed to be the superb king Hammurabi. This revealed identity of the king Amraphel enhance the dimensions of the battle of Siddim, and why Chedorlaomer was very confident with the support that he received from their allied armies.

Many scholars support the hypothesis of the king Hammurabi, the world famous assyriologist Eberhard Schrader who was a pioner in theoryzing about how Amraphel is Hammurabi. The evidences provided that support the theory are basically three. The first mentions that the city of Babel was geographically located within the land of Shinar were Nimrod was the first king of this land. The second, mentions the phonetically relation in the pronunciation of Hammurabi and Amraphel. The third, Amraphel is mentioned first in the chronicle of the battle, making clear his might over the land mentioning him first rather than the other kings.

The bas-relief of Hammurabi at the United States Congress

King Hammurabi is well known for the flourishing, empire that he developed, it is believed that his domains were extended trough central Mesopotamia and the Levant region. Furthermore he is also known, for developing city defenses , that helped him to defend his city from the attack of Ishme-Dagan I of Assyria for the control of Mesopotamia, is well known that Hammurabi made alliances with smaller states to strengthen his own territory, that can explain why he was supporting Elamite king Chedaorlaomer in the control of the plain cities. Furthermore, Hammurabi is better known for the code of laws or code of Hammurabi. This code was written in akkadian, contained 282 laws and was written in 12 tables. The code of laws was available for everyone to see it and also was written on a stele were everyone could read it. However, the stele was later stolen by the Elamites, and finally found again in 1901 and now is secured in the Louvre museum in France.

Map showing the Babylonian territory upon Hammurabi's ascension in c. 1792 BC and upon his death in c. 1750 BC

The code of laws is the most famous contribution of Hammurabi to the world, and nowadays still being a point of controversy due to the similarities with the table of the 10 commandments received from from God by Moses. Furthermore, the Semitic background of both cultures suggest that both laws have evidence of other laws from nearby civilizations in their writing such as Ur-Nammu's code, Laws of Eshnunna, and Code of Lipit-Ishtar, and the later Hittite code of laws.

Hammurabi was an outstanding king and results fascinating to me that he probably was the same king Amraphel that we meet reading Genesis, which is just mentioned a couple times with an almost nonexistent presence of his might in the chronicle of the battle of the nine kings. The change of setting whit this mighty king in the scene make the conflict even more important in the historical value of the event.