Genesis 14:1 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And it came to pass, &c.— The Vulgate renders it, and it came to pass in those days, that Amraphel, &c. a translation which Houbigant follows and approves. It is very difficult to give any satisfactory account of the persons here mentioned. For my own part, I cannot help being very strongly of opinion, that these four kings were only petty monarchs, like those mentioned in the next verse; and not such illustrious princes as those of Persia and Babylon. Or, if we suppose they were kings of Shinar or Babylon, of Elam or Persia, &c. we must conclude, that these monarchies themselves were yet but small, and only growing into power. Almost all countries, we know, were at first divided into smaller principalities; and if we cannot, in the present case, give an exact account of the names of the places, it is not surely to be wondered at, at such a distance of time. Dr. Shuckford, who writes most plausibly at least upon the subject, supposes that the Assyrian empire had at this time extended itself over the adjacent countries, and had brought the little nations and petty princes of Asia under subjection, and, among the rest, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, and of the other three nations mentioned, Genesis 14:2; Genesis 14:8. It is computed that this affair happened about the eighty-fourth or eighty-fifth year of Abram's life, a year or two before the birth of Ishmael, who was born when Abram was eighty-six years old, ch. Genesis 16:16. i.e.. in the year of the world 2093; four years before the death of Ninyas, the son of Ninus and Semiramis. So that Ninyas (according to Dr. Shuckford's supposition) must have been the Chedorlaomer of Moses, here called the king of Elam, or head of the Assyrian empire; and Amraphel king of Shinar was his deputy at Babylon in Shinar, as Tidal and Arioch were his deputies in some adjacent countries. It is remarkable, that, according to Diodorus Siculus, lib. 2: Ninyas was the first who appointed such deputies; and there is no impropriety in calling them kings; for, from what Isaiah hinted afterwards, it appears, that the Assyrian boasted his deputy-princes to be equal to royal governors: Are not my princes altogether kings? Isaiah 10:8. The occasion of this war is told us, Isaiah 10:4.—Twelve years they [the five kings mentioned, Isaiah 10:2.] served Chedorlaomer, i.e.. were his tributaries; and in the thirteenth year they rebelled; i.e.. endeavoured to recover their liberty, by refusing to pay the tribute he had imposed upon them. Upon which, in the fourteenth year, Isaiah 10:5. Chedorlaomer, or Ninyas, summoned his deputies, with an army, to attend him, and overrun the kingdoms in and about Canaan.