found protection among them at the hands of their chieftain Ammu-anshi.
The Ammonites themselves were the "sons of Ammi," and in numerous Hebrew
names we find that of the god. Ammi-el, Ammi-nadab, and Ammi-shaddai are
mentioned in the Old Testament, the Assyrian inscriptions tell us of
Ammi-nadab the king of Ammon, and it is possible that even the name of
Balaam, the Aramaean seer, may be compounded with that of the god. At
all events, the city of Pethor from which he came was "by the river
(Euphrates) of the land of the children of Ammo," for such is the
literal rendering of the Hebrew words.

Ammi-satana was not the first of his line whose authority had been
acknowledged in Palestine. The inscription in which he records the fact
is but a confirmation of what had been long known to us from the Book of
Genesis. There we read how Chedor-laomer, the king of Elam, with the
three vassal princes, Arioch of Ellasar, Amraphel of Shinar, and Tidal
of Goyyim invaded Canaan, and how the kings of the vale of Siddim with
its pits of asphalt became their tributaries. For thirteen years they
remained submissive and then rebelled. Thereupon the Babylonian army
again marched to the west. Bashan and the eastern bank of the Jordan
were subjugated, the Horites in Mount Seir were smitten, and the
invaders then turned back through Kadesh-barnea, overthrowing the
Amalekites and the Amorites on their way. Then came the battle in the
vale of Siddim, which ended in the defeat of the Canaanites, the death
of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrha, and the capture of abundant booty.
Among the prisoners was Lot, the nephew of Abram, and it was to effect
his rescue that the patriarch armed his followers and started in pursuit
of the conquerors. Near Damascus he overtook them, and falling upon them
by night, recovered the spoil of Sodom as well as his "brother's son."

Arioch is the Eri-Aku of the cuneiform texts. In the old language of
Chaldea the name signified "servant of the Moon-god." The king is well
known to us from contemporaneous inscriptions. Besides the inscribed
bricks which have come from the temple of the Moon-god which he enlarged
in the city of Ur, there are numerous contract tablets that are dated in
his reign. He tells us that he was the son of an Elamite, Kudur-Mabug,
son of Simti-silkhak, and prince (or "father") of Yamut-bal on the
borders of Elam and Babylonia. But this is not all. He further gives
Kudur-Mabug the title of "father o