CHEDORLAOMER kĕd ər lā ō’mər (כְּדָרְלָעֹ֨מֶר׃֙, Gr. Χοδολλογομορ). The king of Elam defeated by Abram (Gen 14:1-17).

1. Name. The first part of the name—kudur or kutir “servant” is unquestionably Elamite and in personal names is usually followed by a divine element. In this case la’omar might then be the name of the goddess Lakamar (or Lakamal) referred to in Akkad. texts of the Agade and Old Babylonian period (Mari) and common in Middle Iranian. The name is therefore appropriate to the period c. 2000-1700 b.c.

2. Identification. Chedorlaomer is named as king of Elam and leader of a coalition (Gen 14:4) with Amraphel of Shinar (Babylonia), Arioch of Ellasar, and Tidal, king of Goiim who sacked Sodom and Gomorrah when they revolted after a submission of twelve years. On their return near Damascus, Abraham and his band of retainers defeated them in a surprise night attack. Archeological evidence of an advanced civilization (Middle Bronze I) in Trans-Jordan, Negeb and Sinai at this time which collapsed suddenly authenticates the background of this event (Gen 14). The view that this represents an authentic historical document is in no way belittled by present uncertainty in the identification of Chedorlaomer or his associates. Powerful coalitions of kings marching long distances in the 2nd millennium b.c. are known from cuneiform texts. The commonest view is that which identifies Chedorlaomer with Kutir-naḥḥunti I of Elam c. 1625 b.c. (?) but this requires an unsupported equation of naḥḥundi with la’omar which is unlikely in view of the divine name given above. A more complex view, based on the so-called “Chedorlaomer” tablets in the British Museum (7th cent. b.c.) identifies a king of Elam named there KU.KU.KU.MAL. It has been suggested that the four kings represent different periods and the four “world-regions”—Babylonia (S), Elam (E), Ellasar (Assyria—N) and Goiim (W—Hatti). On this view, Genesis 14 would be an early Midrash.

Bibliography M. C. Astour, “Political and Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis 14 and its Babylonian sources,” A. Altman ed., Biblical Motifs (1966), 65-112.