Amram (Hastings' Dictionary)

(c-iCB ' the people is exalted '). 1. A Levite, son of Kohath and grandson of Levi (Nu H"-'», 1 Ch 6»- »•■"). He married Jo.hebed his father's sister, by whom he begat Aaron and Moses (Ex 6'»-=°) and Miriam (Nu 26=», 1 Ch 6'). 2. A son of Bani who had contracted a marriage with a ' strange woman ' in the time of Ezra (Ezr 10'«). Amramites, The (•p^pl•n). — A branch of the Kohathit« familj' of the tribe of Levi. The name occurs in the account of the cen.

sus taken by Moses (Nu 3-"'), and again in the Chronicler's account of the organisation of the Levites in the time ol David (1 Ch 26'^). W. C. Allen. AMRAPHEL (S5i;>:), mentioned as 'king of Shinar ' (Gn 14'). Schrader, who suggested that the name was a corruption for ' Amraphi ' ('j-idn), was the hrst to identify this king with Khammurabi, the 6th king in the 1st Dynasty of Babylon. The cuneiform inscriptions inform us that Khamraura'oi was king of Babylon and N.

Babylonia ; that he re- belled against the supremacy of Elam ; that he over- threw his rival Eriaku, kingof Larsa; and, after con- quering Sumer and Accad, was the first to make a united Kingdom of Babylonia. He reigned 55 years. Winckler gives the date of his reign as 2264-2210 : Sayce [Patr. Pal. p. 12) gives 2320 as the date of his uniting Babylonia. But the chron. is uncer- tain. The name is given by Hommel as Chammu- rapaltu {Gesch. d. Morgenlandes, p.

5S), and it has sometimes been transcribed as Chammu-ragas. Mr. Pinches considers Amraphel to be a Sem. name = Amarapla = Amarpal ('I see a son'), or Amra-apla = Amrapal (' see a son '). It is Clear that the identification is not free from difficulty, so far as the Biblical account is con- cerned. (1) The date of Khammurabi, according to the reckoning of Winckler and Sayce, etc., is 400 years earlier than the cent, to which Gn 14 is generally ascribed. (2) A.

is described as ' king of Shinar ' ; and Shinar has generally been identititd with Shumer, the S. part of Babylonia. Kham- murabi, while subject to the suzerainty of Elam, was king of Babylon and N. Babylonia, but not of Shumer orS. Babylonia. Thisdifficultyhas been met by the assumption that Shinar is to be understood to denote in Gn all Chald^a, of which Babylon was the capital. No great exactitude in geog. terms can be expected.

Shinar (Sangar), in the inscrip- tions, seems to be situated in Mesopotamia. Possibly Heb. tradition confused the Shinar of Mesopotamia with the Shumer of S. Babylonia. It seems best at present to suspend judgment upon this much disputed identification. The results of Assyriological research in illustration of Gn 14 are still much disputed. Jos. (Ant. I. ix.) transcribes the name as 'A/xopa- ^(6?), although the LXX has 'A/iap/paX. H. E. Ryle.