AMRAFEL (Septuagint) Ἀμαρράλ). - King of Sennar, who, Arioch (v.) and Thadal, Chodorlahomor (v.) of Elam in the expedition against the Syro-Palestinian peoples, and then against the coalition of the kings of the Pentapolis, who had rebelled against Chodorlahomor after twelve years of subjection (Gen. 14:1, 9).
The resemblance between the two names has led scholars, from Eb. Schrader (1872) onward, to identify A. HAMMURABI (HAMMURAPI) (v.) of Babylon (cf. J. Hontheim, in Zeitschrift für hath. Theologie, 36 [1912], pp. 48-67). The difficulties opposing this derive from the name itself, since the final syllable is lacking in the Babylonian name, and also from chronology, as scholars have not yet agreed in establishing the dates either of Abraham or of Hammurabi. F.M.T. Böhl, followed by A. Jrku and A. Albright, clearly separates them, placing the four eastern kings in the time of Boghazkói (v.) and setting Abraham’s arrival in Palestine around 1550 B.C.; he interprets A. as Amur-apil, “son of Amur” (god of the Amorites). As far as can now be said, the identification is chronologically and linguistically possible. The ending could be explained from Hurrian (cf. Gilgamish = Gilgamishil), but historically several obscure points remain, and the prudent exegete will not place too much reliance on the aforesaid identification (A. Bea, La Palestina preisraelitica, in Biblica, 24 [1943], p. 247, n. 2).