Chaldea: From the Earliest Times to the Rise of AssyriaRagozin, Zénaïde A. (Zénaïde Alexeïevna)
History
Chaldea: From the Earliest Times to the Rise of Assyria
Ragozin, Zénaïde A. (Zénaïde Alexeïevna)
Babylonia -- History
29. One of Khudur-Nankhundi's next successors, KHUDUR-LAGAMAR, was not
content with the addition of Chaldea to his kingdom of Elam. He had the
ambition of a born conqueror and the generalship of one. The Chap. XIV.
of Genesis--which calls him Chedorlaomer--is the only document we have
descriptive of this king's warlike career, and a very striking picture
it gives of it, sufficient to show us that we have to do with a very
remarkable character. Supported by three allied and probably tributary
kings, that of Shumir (Shinear), of Larsam, (Ellassar) and of the GOIM,
(in the unrevised translation of the Bible "king of nations") i.e., the
nomadic tribes which roamed on the outskirts and in the yet unsettled,
more distant portions of Chaldea, Khudur-Lagamar marched an army 1200
miles across the desert into the fertile, wealthy and populous valleys
of the Jordan and the lake or sea of Siddim, afterwards called the Dead
Sea, where five great cities--Sodom, Gomorrah, and three others--were
governed by as many kings. Not only did he subdue these kings and impose
his rule on them, but contrived, even after he returned to the Persian
Gulf, to keep on them so firm a hand, that for twelve years they
"served" him, i.e., paid him tribute regularly, and only in the
thirteenth year, encouraged by his prolonged absence, ventured to
rebel. But they had underrated Khudur-Lagamar's vigilance and activity.
The very next year he was among them again, together with his three
faithful allies, encountered them in the vale of Siddim and beat them,
so that they all fled. This was the battle of the "four kings with
five." As to the treatment to which the victor subjected the conquered
country it is very briefly but clearly described: "And they took all the
goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their
way."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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