ARIOCH. - Name of three biblical figures.

1. One of the four eastern kings who invaded Canaan as far as the Pentapolis (v.) and were driven back by Abraham (Gen. 14:1, 9). The Vulgate (following Symmachus) makes him "king of Pontus"; but the kingdom of that name did not yet exist. He was (Masoretic text and Septuagint) king of Ellasar, which corresponds to Larsa in Babylonia.

It is generally held (after G. Smith and Eb. Schrader, 1872) that A. is the contemporary of Hammurabi Rim-Sin, or "servant of Sin" (the cuneiform A-ri-a-ku has not, however, been found so far; according to Dhorme, Rim-Sin would have become Rivaaku, then Eri-vaaku and Ariak), the last king of Larsa (ca. 1985-1925 B.C.), brother and successor of Arad-Sin (ca. 1997-1985 B.C.), son of Kudur-Mabuk of the dynasty of Elam (Kudurids). The presence of Rim-Sin in the punitive expedition of Chodorlahomor (v.) of Elam with his confederates should go back to the beginning of the reign of Hammurabi, who later expelled the Elamites, among them the king of Larsa, from Mesopotamia. But Böhl and Jirku, who deny the identity of Amraphel (v.) with Hammurabi, do not admit in A. a king of Larsa contemporary with Hammurabi.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: F. Hommel, in Biblische Zeitschrift, 15 (1920), pp. 213-18; A. Jirku, Altorientalischer Kommentar zum A. T., Leipzig 1923, ad h. loc.; P. Heinisch, Das Buch Genesis, Bonn 1930, p. 216; F. M. Th. Böhl, Das Zeitalter Abrahams, in Der Alte Orient, 20 (1930), pp. 12-19; P. Dhorme, in Revue Biblique, 40 (1931), p. 308.

2. Commander (rabh) of the king's militia or bodyguard (fabbahajā = satellites) of Nebuchadnezzar, from whom he received the order to kill the diviners incapable of interpreting the king's dream, and to whom he introduced Daniel (Dan. 2:14-16, 24 f.); duties which in oriental courts we find entrusted to such officials (II Sam. 4:12; 1:15).

3. King of the Elamites, that is, of the Elamite dynasty (the Vulgate has "Erioch, rex Elicorum"), from whom the Mesopotamian plain of Ragau took its name (Jud. 1:6). Perhaps this is the king of Larsa (see above, 1), the memory of whose defeat by Hammurabi would have been preserved in the toponymy.

Antonino Romeo

@incollection{ec1_arioch, author = {Romeo, Antonino}, title = {Arioch}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {1901--1902}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/arioch} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

About this entry