“And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim,”
In the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the allied kings defeat the Rephaites, Zuzites, Emites, and Horites in a series of engagements across a wide geographic area. The Rephaites and other groups named here are ancient peoples of Canaan — some of the same groups listed in Genesis 15:20 as inhabitants of the land God promises to Abram. Chedorlaomer's campaign sweeps through the entire region, defeating long-established peoples across a vast arc. The military power on display here is formidable: four kings defeating multiple peoples across hundreds of miles. The narrative is establishing why the five kings of the plain — and by extension Lot, who lives among them — are in trouble. Numbers 13:33 references the descendants of some of these peoples as a cause of fear for the Israelite spies — they are giants, occupants of the land before Israel. Here they are falling before Chedorlaomer's campaign.
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