Amraphel
Encyclopedia
In the Tanakh
Tanakh
The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...

 or Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...

, Amraphel was a king of Shinar
Shinar
Shinar was a geographical locale of uncertain boundaries in Mesopotamia. The name may be a corruption of Shene nahar , Shene or , or Sumer .It has been suggested that Shinar must have been confined to the northern part of Mesopotamia Shinar (Hebrew Šin`ar, Septuagint Σεννααρ Sennaar) was a...

 (Babylonia, broadly speaking) in Genesis xiv.1 and 9, who invaded the west along with Chedorlaomer
Chedorlaomer
Chedorlaomer "a handful of sheaves", was a king of Elam according to the Hebrew Bible book of Genesis Chapter 14. He ruled fourteen years, from the East in southwestern Persia, occupying the regions east of the Jordan river, in the days of Abram...

, king of Elam, and others, and defeated Sodom
Sodom and Gomorrah
Sodom and Gomorrah were cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis and later expounded upon throughout the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and Deuterocanonical sources....

 and the other Cities of the Plain
Sodom and Gomorrah
Sodom and Gomorrah were cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis and later expounded upon throughout the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and Deuterocanonical sources....

 in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim
Battle of the Vale of Siddim
The Battle of Siddim, or Battle of the Vale of Siddim refers to an event in the Hebrew Bible book of that occurred in the days of Abram and Lot...

.

Beginning with E. Schrader (Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament, vol II (1888), pp 299ff) this king was usually associated with Hammurabi
Hammurabi
Hammurabi Hammurabi Hammurabi (Akkadian from Amorite ʻAmmurāpi, "the kinsman is a healer", from ʻAmmu, "paternal kinsman", and Rāpi, "healer"; (died c...

, who ruled in Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...

 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. According to John Van Seters
John Van Seters
John Van Seters is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East. Currently University Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina, he was formerly James A. Gray Professor of Biblical Literature at UNC. He took his PhD at Yale University in Near Eastern Studies...

 in Abraham in History and Tradition
Abraham in History and Tradition
Abraham in History and Tradition is a book by biblical scholar John Van Seters.The book is divided into two parts, Abraham in History and Abraham in Tradition. In Part I part Van Seters argues that there is no unambiguous evidence pointing to an origin for the stories in the 2nd millennium BC...

, the existence of Amraphel is unconfirmed by any sources outside the Bible.

In the Midrash
Midrash
The Hebrew term Midrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....

 (Tanchuma Lekh Lekhah 6) and later Rabbinical literature, Amraphel was identified with Nimrod
Nimrod (king)
Nimrod is, according to the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles, the son of Cush and great-grandson of Noah and the king of Shinar. He is depicted in the Tanakh as a man of power in the earth, and a mighty hunter. Extra-Biblical traditions associating him with the Tower of Babel led to his...

(this is also attested to in the 11th Book of Jasher).

"And these are the sons of Ham; Cush, Mitzraim, Phut and Canaan, four sons" (Jasher 7)

These four created the Tower of Babel (not the city Babel nimrod created in Shinar) 2 days journey east of Shinar under their grandson's (nimrod) authority.
Followed by:

"And Nimrod dwelt in Babel, and he there renewed his reign over the rest of his subjects, and he reigned securely, and the subjects and princes of Nimrod called his name Amraphel, saying that at the tower his princes and men fell through his means. -Book of the Upright (Jasher) 11

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