'9U] OF THE PATRIARCHAL NARRATIVES. 199 



Arioch, king of Elassar (Gen. 14: i), has been identified with 

 Rim-Sin, king of Larsa, a contemporary of the latter part of the 

 reign of Hammurapi. But the fact is the name of Rim-Sin could 

 not even in Sumerian possibly be readAri-aku. That of his brother, 

 Arad-Sin, might be so read, but there is nothing to lead us to sup- 

 pose that it was, and there is no evidence that either Arad-Sin or 

 Rim-Sin were ever in friendly alliance with Hammurapi. ^^ 



Again, much has been made of the fact that Kudur-Mabug, the 

 father of Arad-Sin and Rim-Sin, who was the " Ad-da " or ruler 

 of Emutbal, a district of western Elam, calls himself "Ad-da" of 

 Mar-tu,^^ which has been supposed to be Palestine. Mar-tu, how- 

 ever, simply meant the place of sunset, and probably in this inscrip- 

 tion refers to the western part of Elam.^^ There is really nothing 

 whatever to connect Kudur-Mabug with Palestine at all. And even 

 if there were, his name is not Cherdorlaomar, so that again the in- 

 scription would be evidence of the lack of information on the part 

 of the Biblical writer. 



Much has been made by Professors Sayce^*' and Hommel of four 

 documents published by Pinches in the Transactions of the Victoria 

 Institute, XXIX., 82 ff., which, according to Sayce and Pinches, con- 

 tain the names of Arioch, Cherdorlaomar, and Tidal, the three kings, 

 who in Gen. 14: i are associated with Amraphel. The documents 

 are written in Semitic and are from the Persian period, not earlier 

 than the fourth century B.C. 



In reality neither the names Cherdorlaomar nor x\rioch appear 

 in the text. The name read Kudurlakhmal is really Kn-ku-ku-mal 

 or Ku-dnr-ku-inal. The other reading is only obtained by giving to 

 the sign kti a value, lakh, altogether unattested by the cuneiform 

 literature. The name read Eri-eaku and identified with Arioch is 

 spelled in two ways. If read as Sumerian, it might be Eri-eaku. 

 The text in which it occurs is, however, Semitic, and it is probable 

 that the name is to be read here in Semitic fashion. So read it 



"'Cf. Journal of Biblical Literature, XXVIII., 158 ff. 



'"'Cuneiform Texts," XXI., 33. 



^ See Price, Decennial Publications of the University of Chicago, V., 

 167 ff. 



^'Cf. PSBA. XXVIII., 203-218, 241-251; XXIX., 7-17. Cf. also King. 

 " Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi," I., p. h ff. 



