CHEDOR-LAOMER . An early king of Elam, who, according to Genesis 14:1-24 , exercised dominion over a considerable part of Western Asia. His vassals, Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, and Tidal, king of Goiim, helped him to defeat the Canaanite princes of Sodom, Gomorrah, Adman, Zeboiim, and Zoar, who had rebelled against him after having acknowledged his authority for twelve years. Chedor-laomer and his allies defeated the Canaanite princes in the valley of Siddim, and sacked Sodom and Gomorrah. But the story relates that they were in turn defeated by’ Abram, the Hebrew,’ who surprised them by night and recovered the spoil of Sodom and his nephew Lot. The name of Chedor-laomer is a purely Elamite name ( Kudur-Lagamar or Kutir-Lagamar ), though it has not yet been found upon the inscriptions as that of an early king of Elam. But the recent excavations of M. de Morgan at Susa confirm the Biblical story, by revealing the considerable part which Elam played in the early history of Western Asia.
L. W. King.