Hebrew word · H569

אַמְרָפֶל

'amrafel

Amraphel

A personal name, found only in Genesis 14:1 and 14:9. Its language and meaning are uncertain. Proposals include an Amorite or Akkadian name such as Amud-pi-El (a known king of Qatna in Syria in the Mari period), or names built on Amar- / -pi-El. None is a secure match.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

A man living at the time of the Patriarchs, first mentioned at Gen.14.1

§ Amraphel = "sayer of darkness: fall of the sayer"

the king of Shinar (Babylon) (perhaps Hammurabi c 2100 BC)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Genesis 14:1

Range of meaning

A personal name, found only in Genesis 14:1 and 14:9. Its language and meaning are uncertain. Proposals include an Amorite or Akkadian name such as Amud-pi-El (a known king of Qatna in Syria in the Mari period), or names built on Amar- / -pi-El. None is a secure match.

Against the English

English versions simply transliterate the name, which is right. The NLT gives the kingdom as "Babylonia" rather than Shinar, but keeps the name.

How it drifted

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, newly deciphered cuneiform led scholars (e.g. Eberhard Schrader) to identify Amraphel with Hammurabi of Babylon. Popular handbooks repeated this for decades. Most scholars, conservative ones included, have since abandoned it: the sounds do not match (initial ḫ or ʿ versus Hebrew ʾ, and the final -l is unexplained), and nothing known of Hammurabi's reign fits a campaign into Transjordan as one of Elam's junior allies.

Used elsewhere in the period

Later Jewish tradition identified Amraphel with Nimrod, the founder of Shinar's cities in Genesis 10. The Babylonian Talmud (Eruvin 53a) explains the name with wordplay as "he said (amar) and cast (hippil)", tying it to a legend that Nimrod threw Abraham into a furnace. The Genesis Apocryphon (1QapGen 21) calls him "king of Babel".

Where it appears

Genesis · 2

  1. Genesis 14:1 אַמְרָפֶ֣ל Amraphel

    In those days Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim

    Here: A personal name. No known ancient record has an exact match, and its origin is disputed. The old equation with Hammurabi of Babylon is now widely rejected. He is named first, possibly because the episode is dated by his reign, even though verses 4–5 show that Kedorlaomer was the real leader.

  2. Genesis 14:9 וְאַמְרָפֶל֙ and Amraphel

    against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against five.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.