24 The Fundamentals. a rebellion was instigated and in the following year Chedor- laomer and the kings that were with him appeared on the scene and, after capturing numerous surrounding cities, joined battle with the rebellious allies in the vale of Siddim, which was full of slime pits. The victory of Chedorlaomer was complete, and after capturing Lot and his goods in Sodom he started home ward by way of Damascus, near which place Abraham over took him, and by a successful stratagem scattered his forces by night and recovered Lot and his goods. This story, told with so many details that its refutation would be easy if it were not true to the facts and if there were contemporary records with which to compare it, has been a special butt for the ridicule of the Higher Critics of the Wellhausen school, Professor Nol- deke confidently declaring as late as 1869 that criticism had forever disproved its claim to be historical. But here again the inscriptions on the monuments of Babylonia have come to the rescue of the sacred historian, if, indeed, he were in need of rescue. (For where general ignorance was so pro found as it was respecting that period forty years ago, true modesty should have suggested caution in the expression of positive opinions in contradiction to such a detailed historical statement as this is.) From the inscriptions already discovered and deciphered in the Valley of the Euphrates, it is now shown beyond rea sonable doubt that the four kings mentioned in the Bible as joining in this expedition are not, as was freely said, “etymo logical inventions,” but real historical persons. Amraphel is identified as the Hammurabi whose marvelous code of laws was so recently discovered by De Morgan at Susa. The “H” in the latter word simply expresses the rough breathing so well known in Hebrew. The “p” in the biblical name has taken the place of “b” by a well-recognized law of phonetic change. “Amrap” is equivalent to “Hamrab.” The addition of “il” in the biblical name is probably the suffix of the di vine name, like “el” in Israel.
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