King of Shinar in the time of Abraham. With three other petty kings, he made war upon the tribes around the Dead Sea, and the cities of the plain, Ge 14:1.

king of Shinar, southern Chaldea, one of the confederates of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, in a war against Sodom and cities of the plain (Ge 14:1,4). It is now found that Amraphel (or Ammirapaltu) is the Khammu-rabi whose name appears on recently-discovered monuments. (See Chedorlaomer). After defeating Arioch (q.v.) he united Babylonia under one rule, and made Babylon his capital.

One of the four invading kings (Ge 14:9). Shinar, his kingdom, or Babylonia, was subordinate to the great Elanrite king, (See CHEDORLAOMER.) The Assyrian monuments attest that an Elamite king invaded and plundered Babylonia in 2386 B.C.; and Babylonian remains bear traces of Elamitic influence.

The king of Shinar (Ge 14:1). He has been identified (by Schrader and usually) with Hammurabi, king of Babylonia, but apart from the difficulties due to differences of spelling, there is no evidence that Hammurabi was ever allied with a king of Elam and a king of Larsa to invade the West. Boscawen suggests Amar-Pal, the ideographic writing of Sinmuhallit, the father of Hammurabi, for whom such an alliance is more likely. See Chedorlaomer.

C. H. W. Johns.

Am'raphel

King of Shinar, in the time of Abram. Ge 14:1,9.

Am'raphel

(keeper of the gods) perhaps a Hamite king of Shinar or Babylonia, who joined the victorious incursion of the Elamite Chedorlaomer against the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain. Gen. 14. (B.C. 1898.)