FLYING SERPENTS AND DRAGONS
By R. A. Boulay 1990
Editorial Comments By Roberto Solàrion 1997
Of all the patriarchal narratives of the Bible, Genesis 14 is unique in being set in a context of world history. It describes an invasion from the east in the year 2085 BC and the role of Abraham in defending the land of Canaan. It is part of a vast panorama of history from the birth of Abraham in 2167 BC until 2067 BC when Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities of the Valley of Siddim were destroyed. This ended a dispute over control of the Western Lands and the space facilities. This time frame coincides with the end of the Early Bronze Age, surmised as between 2100 and 2000 BC, marked by large scale destruction of the cities of the Levant. During these years, the Third Dynasty of Ur rose to prominence in Mesopotamia and, according to traditional chronology, ruled from 2114 BC to 2004 BC. In order to reflect the juxtaposition of the activities of Ur-Nammu and Abraham, it has been necessary to adjust these years by ten, for no other Mesopotamian king of the era fits the Biblical background so well. [Comment: Here it is obvious that Boulay is employing the mental logic of the Velikovskian School.] Abraham was born in the city of Ur in lower Mesopotamia in 2167 BC, at the time when the land was still under the control of the Gutian hordes. About the year 2109, the Gutians were overcome by Utu-Hegal of Uruk who drove them out of Mesopotamia. One of his governors usurped the throne and seized control in 2102 BC. This was Ur-Nammu who ruled for 18 years according to the Sumerian King List. Ur-Nammu and the subsequent kings adopted the name of the god Sin as their patron, suggesting the assistance of this deity and his priesthood. [Comment: Sin refers to Prince Nannar-Sin, or Hermes, or Thoth, the Nibiruan "God of Magic."] Abraham and his father Terah were high priests serving the deities of Adad [Prince Ishkur, the Greek Ares, the Nibiruan "God of War"] at the city of Ur. The change in kingship placed them in a dangerous position; and in 2106, they wisely migrated to Haran in northern Mesopotamia, a city on the edge of the Hittite lands controlled by Adad. [Comment: It will be noted in passing that the "Hittites" or "Amalekites" were in fact the "ghost correlations" of the Assyrian and Babylonian Dynasties from King Pitkanas of Kusarra in 1050 BCE until the Persian Conquest by Cyrus The Great in 519 BCE, a few years following the death King Nebuchadnezzar The Great, known in Hittite "ghost correlation" as King Hattushilis III.] The first invasion of Palestine by Ur-Nammu was in 2100 soon after he consolidated his position among the cities of the valley of Mesopotamia. The invasion is only implied in the Book of Genesis, but it is described in the Antiquities of Josephus. At this time, Ur-Nammu forced a treaty and an assurance of fealty on the cities of the Valley of Siddim: Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Seboyim, and Zoar. These cities were at that time located in the valley now covered by the northern part of the Dead Sea. [Comment: This contradicts Sitchin, who places Sodom and Gomorrah more southerly and closer to the Mount Sinai Space Complex, commanded by Prince Utu/Apollo.] For twelve years, as reported in Genesis, the pact held firm; in the thirteenth year the cities rebelled and refused to pay tribute. In the fourteenth year, the eastern kings invaded the lands. The rebellion was apparently fomented by Adad [Prince Ishkur, Imperial Consort of Queen Ninkhursag, or Isis, or Hera], for in 2091, a few years before they rebelled, Abraham was sent to Canaan and then to Egypt, apparently to set up defenses against what was sure to be an invasion from the east. The year before the invasion, Abraham returned from Egypt with a princess as a bride and presumably a detachment of troops. Abraham went to Bethel near Ai where he divided his forces: Lot took his troops east to defend the city of Sodom in the Valley of Siddim. Abraham deployed his forces south to the Anakim [Anunnaki] fortress city of Hebron where he gained valuable allies of the Anakim.
[Comment: If Prince Ishkur Adad, Abraham and Lot were attempting to defend the Space Complex from attack, then obviously they were allied against the forces of Princess-Royal Inanna Aphrodite, the Nibiruan "Goddess of the Air Forces," and her chief ally, her commander-lover-brother Prince Utu Apollo, Nibiruan "God of Space." This would automatically imply that Prince Ishkur Adad’s forces were being assisted by the massive military might of Duke Nergal Hades and Duchess Ereshkigal Persephone, the CEOs of the Nibiruan Gold Mining Consortium in Southern Africa, the "Underworld of the Gods." Ultimately, as we know from Sitchin, this coalition lost these "Pyramid Wars."] The disposition of Abraham’s forces south of Jerusalem and north of the Sinai reveals that he was guarding much more than just the cities of the Valley of Siddim. His main preoccupation seemed to be the security of the space complex at Mount Sinai and Kadesh-Barnea. The following year, the eastern kings under the leadership of Ur-Nammu invaded the Western Lands. This must have been a formidable army. Revealed in the Haggadah as numbering 800,000, they easily penetrated the Trans-Jordan and destroyed the fortifications of the Rephaim. The rapidity with which they passed through this heavily defended area strongly indicates the use of special mass destructive weapons supplied by their deity Sin [Prince Nannar Hermes Thoth]. [Comment: Thus, Ur-Nammu’s forces and Prince Nannar Sin were allied with those of Princess-Royal Inanna and Prince Utu, not to mention those of deposed Emperor Anu and Empress Antu themselves.] Abraham belatedly engaged the enemy at Dan, north of the Sea of Galilee, and again near Damascus where he liberated Lot and his men, and retrieved most of the booty from the rear train of the hastily departing army. It is puzzling why the invaders did not stop and fight the small forces at Abraham’s disposal and preserve their loot and prisoners. Had the invading army stood its ground, it would easily have defeated the army of Abraham. For some unstated reason, however, the army was in a headlong flight back to its native land. Ur-Nammu is known to have gotten ill on an expedition to a foreign mountainland and died soon after his return to his capital city of Ur. It is possible that he did succumb to the effects of his own weapons, perhaps chemical toxicity or radioactive fallout. [Comment: It can also be surmised that Ur-Nammu’s "hasty retreat" was the result of military-style intelligence foreknowledge of the nuclear-type blast that was going to be set off by Space Commander Prince Utu Apollo to destroy the Space Complex, and he and his troops were getting out of the line of fire, so to speak.] Shulgi then became king and a quiet period seems to have come over the land of Canaan. During this interim period, Abraham apparently broke relations with Egypt, as shown in the treatment of Hagar, his Egyptian wife, and their son and heir Ishmael. The cities returned to the aegis of the eastern kings and reaffirmed their loyalty to the Dynasty of Ur. Considering Adad’s inability to defend them successfully against the might of the Mesopotamian power, it seems to have been a logical move. In the person of Yahweh, Adad is portrayed in the Old Testament as a vindictive and vengeful god. This his revenge on the cities of the Plain should have been no surprise. [Comment: This is clearly a gross mistake on Boulay’s part, and one wonders if he cleared up this error of correlation in his new and revised edition, which was published in the fall of 1997. Earlier in this book, Boulay stated that Yahweh was Crown-Prince Enlil Zeus, with which I agree completely. Here, however, he equates Yahweh with Adad, or Prince Ishkur Ares.] In 2067 BC, seeing that he could not retain their loyalty, he unleashed mass destructive weapons on the cities of the Plain that also ruptured the valley floor, resulting in the formation of the inland sea. ABRAHAM, HIGH PRIEST AND GENERAL OF ADAD The family background of Abraham is given but brief mention in Genesis which states laconically,
Obviously, Genesis is no help in obtaining information on the early life and activities of Abraham in the city of Ur where he was born and raised. Nonetheless, there are other sources that fill in the omissions of Genesis, such as that of Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews, The Book of Jubilees, The Book of the Apocalypse of Abraham, and the oral tradition of the Hebrews as recorded in the Haggadah. According to Jubilees, Abraham came from a long line of high-priests which served the local deities of the cities of Mesopotamia. His grandfather Nahor learned about the special priestly knowledge from his father for,
Nahor’s son carried on the family tradition; he in turn was assisted in his priestly duties by his [grand]son Abraham. Thus, it is recorded that at least four generations served in the priesthood of the city of Ur. Jubilees mentions how Abraham in his 60th year differed with his father and burned down the temple which contained the idols. His brother Haran dashed in to save the idols but perished in the fire. It was for destroying the temple, according to this source, that Terah and his family were forced to leave Ur. The real reason for the migration, however, lies in the political turmoil of the times, and it may be that the temple they destroyed was that of Enlil or [Nannar] Sin. Probably the most detailed and fascinating story of Abraham’s early life is found in The Book of the Apocalypse of Abraham. The Slavonic Apocalypse of Abraham, as it is sometimes called, is dated to the First Century AD and probably originated in Hebrew in Palestine. It was completely lost to the Western Christian Church until the Eleventh Century AD, having been preserved in Old Slavonic. [Comment: It is an intriguing thought to contemplate that this apocalyptic document was finally discovered in the First Century CE, the century of Apollonius of Tyana. One wonders exactly who discovered this valuable historical document!] In this document, Terah is described not only as an astrologer but also an idol-maker. With his son’s help, Terah ran a workshop that manufactured idols for the temples of the Mesopotamian cities as well as for sale to private citizens for home use. These were made of different materials - stone, wood, iron, copper, silver, and gold, with their value determined by the substance and workmanship. These idols were presumably the teraphim of the Old Testament and the animated idols of the Sumerians that, with devices embedded in the statue and power packs inserted in the eye sockets, acted as communicator radio sets. Abraham’s father was just not an ordinary priest for, according to the Haggadah, he "was a Prince and magnate in the house of the king." The king was presumably Utu-Hegal, and thus the fate of Terah and Abraham was intimately connected with the fortunes of this ruling house. ABRAHAM LEAVES ON A MISSION FOR ADAD Abraham left Haran for the land of Canaan when he was 75 years old. Thus, he remained in Haran for 14 years, from 2106 to 2092 BC. Although the Scriptures are silent about these years, events elsewhere were rapidly moving to a conclusion. In Ur, the ambitious Ur-Nammu was consolidating his newly won position by gradually subduing the other cities of Mesopotamia. Only then did he turn his attention to the Western Lands. The story is narrated in Genesis:
The pact between the Canaanite kings and the Sumerian kings, presumably led by Ur-Nammu, was therefore enacted fourteen years earlier in 2098 BC. According to Josephus, this treaty was the result of an incursion by the kings of Mesopotamia who were "conquerors and imposed a tribute on kings of the Sodomites who submitted to this slavery twelve years." The earlier invasion had occurred during the years that Abraham was at Haran. He must have witnessed these events that saw the policies of Ur-Nammu take fruition. It is known from the Sumerian King List that the Gutian hordes ruled Mesopotamia for 91 years after the destruction of Agade. Then for seven years the kingship was established at Uruk under tutelage of Utu-Hegal. The King List then cryptically states that "Uruk was smitten with weapons and its kingship carried off to Ur." Rarely does a kingship change hands in this manner in the King List. When a city or enemy is "smitten with weapons," it usually refers to unusual widespread destruction such as by non-traditional weapons, that is, the special weapons of the gods. Utu-Hegal of the unfortunate city of Uruk left a memorial of his exploits on a clay tablet wherein he praises the gods Ishkur (Adad) and Utu (Shamash) for their help in defeating the Gutians and returning the kingship to Uruk. Adad and Utu were gods of the Western Lands, that is, Anatolia and Lebanon respectively. Were these the gods that Terah and Abraham served? If so, they were forced to leave Ur when Ur-Nammu established his capital in their home city of Ur. [Comment: This is slightly confusing, as is so much of the interpretation of these crucial events. Here it would seem that Prince Ishkur and Prince Utu were allied with one another. Because of the romantic emotionalism of "The Pyramid Wars," perhaps alliances frequently changed.] Ur-Nammu had the support of Nannar (Sin) and the whole priesthood loyal to him; this is shown in the affinity of the kings of this dynasty to attach his name to theirs, for example, Amar-Sin, Shu-Sin, and Ibbi-Sin. Even from the abbreviated version of Abraham’s activities as provided by Genesis, it is quite obvious that he was not just an ordinary nomadic chief. He could mobilize a sizable number of troops on short notice and engage a formidable invading horde. There must have been more to the migration than just a vague impulse to settle and populate a new land. Thus, in the year 2092, the fifteenth year of his stay in Haran, Abraham received his marching orders. Genesis states tersely that Yahweh appeared to Abraham and told him to take Sarah and Lot and "all the possessions that they had acquired, and all the persons they had obtained in Haran," and set out for the land of Canaan. The statement leaves open the question of the size of his contingent, and "all the persons they had obtained in Haran" could have been a considerable number of people. Leaving with his entourage, Abraham proceeded to the area south of Shechem, a site which plays a significant role in the later activities of the Hebrews. "Abraham travelled in the land as far as the site of Shechem, by the terebinth (oak) of Moreh," says Genesis. Customarily, Moreh is translated as a personal name, but its original meaning is "guiding" or "oracular." In the Book of Judges the "moreh" at Shechem is referred to as the "soothsayer terebinth." It was apparently a place where one could contact the gods. ABRAHAM RETURNS FROM EGYPT TO SET UP DEFENSES At Bethel, Adad told Abraham to go to Egypt where, according to Jubilees, he remained for five years. Was Abraham’s visit there a mission for Adad to secure their help in the coming hostilities? Little is known of these years, although Josephus implies he moved in the highest circles since he taught the Egyptians many sciences they did not know. Abraham also took an Egyptian wife, a Princess and daughter of the Pharaoh, the usual practice when a treaty is struck between allies. This is not the action of a common nomad and reveals Abraham’s aristocratic status and verifies the statement in the Haggadah that his father Terah was a Prince and "magnate" in the house of the ruler of Ur. Hagar, Abraham’s bride, was apparently Adad’s choice to start a dynasty under Abraham in the land of Canaan. This is evident in their first child Ishmael being made the heir apparent at the time. It was not until later that a change of fortune caused Adad to initiate a new line of descent under Isaac. Abraham must have had advanced knowledge of the coming invasion from the east and sought Egyptian assistance in the form of an armed force. In the year 2086, Abraham returned to Canaan and immediately proceeded to Bethel where he had had previous communications with Adad. This conference took place about a year before the invasion. In view of subsequent events, it seems that the cities of the Plain must have abrogated their treaty with Ur at this time, probably at the instigation of Adad, with the promise to provide them with the necessary protection. Abraham was entrusted with the task of setting up defenses. At Bethel, Abraham was told to divide his forces. Lot took part of the army eastward to the Valley of Siddim and deployed them before the city of Sodom to protect it from a direct assault through the Jordan Valley. Abraham led his own forces and Egyptian troops southward to Hebron, at that time a strong citadel of the Anakim, or Rephaim [Anunnaki]. Here he received support from the Anakim generals Mamre, Eshkol, and Aner. It is noteworthy that Abraham did not deploy his forces north of Jerusalem which is the logical place to defend that city. Obviously, he was protecting some place south of Jerusalem and Hebron; and as events developed, it became evident that El-Paran in the northern Sinai was the target of the invading army. The third possible approach to the Sinai was through the Trans-Jordan. Adad and Abraham relied heavily on their formidable Rephaim allies, which controlled that mountainous region which was the location of the main trade route known as the King’s Highway. Protected by a string of fortified bastions, this area was believed to be impenetrable. Hence, as the fateful year 2085 BC approached, Abraham had strategically deployed his forces. With his Egyptian, Anakim, and Rephaim allies, his position seemed impregnable. Where was the Valley of Siddim where Sodom and Gomorrah were located and which played a major role in the defenses of Abraham? LOCATION OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH Sodom and Gomorrah and the other infamous cities of the Valley of Siddim which were destroyed in the days of Abraham have never been physically located, although tradition places them under the waters of the shallow or southern part of the Dead Sea. A second false assumption which we will address here is the age of the Dead Sea, that it is hundred of thousands of years old and that it existed in this form since recorded time. There is no Scriptural or other evidence to support both suppositions. To the contrary, all indications are that the cities were located in the northern part of the Dead Sea and that this sea dates no further back than the days of Abraham. The five cities seem to have been a cohesive group. Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboyim, and Zoar or Bela were often linked together geographically as though they were neighbors in the Valley of Siddim. The five cities were also associated commercially, as implied in Genesis when they rebelled as a group against the authority of the kings of Mesopotamia and refused to pay tribute. They are also mentioned as a group in the Ebla tablets, strongly indicative that they were a trading consortium of alliance. The area covered by the Dead Sea is an extension of the Jordan Valley as it would have continued into the Wadi Arabah were it not contained south of Jericho for an area of some 50 miles [80 kms.]. Since the lake is a continuation of the valley, what are the characteristics of this important geographical feature which so dominates the land of Palestine? Today the valley through which the Jordan River flows extends 65 miles [100 kms.] between the Sea of Galilee in the north and the Dead Sea in the south. The valley is between three and 14 miles wide, while its river bends and twists in many loops as to complete an overall run of 200 miles [320 kms.]. The river itself is about 90 to 100 feet [25-30 meters] wide and three to 10 feet [1-3 meters] deep except in flood at springtime. It falls a distance of 590 feet between the two bodies of water, providing for the swift current of the river. After a torturous descent of 200 miles, it loses itself completely in the Dead Sea from which there is no outlet. Historical evidence indicates that it was not so at the time of Abraham. The Jordan Valley at that time extended all the way from the Sea of Galilee, through what is now the Dead Sea, then called the Valley of Siddim, and exited into the Wadi Arabah. It may have continued south emptying into the Gulf of Aqaba. The valley was extremely fertile. Its lush vegetation made it a veritable garden of Eden as suggested in Genesis when,
The Valley of Siddim is thus compared in its green luxuriance to the garden of Eden and the Nile Valley. In Biblical times, part of the valley of the Jordan was called "The Thicket" or "Jungle of the Jordan" where lions and other animals were so numerous as to be a threat to travellers and sheep herders of the area. Its many advantages - abundance of water, rich vegetation, and strategic location - made the Valley of Siddim a natural site for many large and prosperous cities. The Jordan-Siddim valley controlled the major trade route from Lebanon and the Mediterranean ports in the north, with the land of Egypt and the Red Sea ports to the south. It was probably for these reasons that the valley was so heavily defended with citadels like Jericho, Beth-Shean, Beth-Nimrah, and En-Gedi, protecting the vital approaches of the north and west. On the eastern side, a natural mountain barrier was supplemented by a number of fortified cities of the Rephaim. In the southern part of the Valley of Siddim, the bitumen pits formed a natural obstacle. THE ORIGIN OF THE DEAD SEA Geological and historical evidence indicates that the lower Jordan Valley in the past was much different from what it is today. The Dead Sea did not exist at the time of Abraham. In fact, studies of the accumulation of the salt content of the Dead Sea place the lake no older than 6,000 years. The subject is discussed by Velikovsky in his Ages In Chaos. Quoting the British Geographic Journal, Velikovsky contends that if the accumulation of salt (sodium) and other sources of accretion brought in by the Jordan River were taken as a basis of computation for the age of the Dead Sea, its age would be less than 6,000 years or even 5,000 years. In the Biblical story of the invasion of the four kings from the east, it specifically states that the area now occupied by the Dead Sea used to be called the Valley or Vale of Siddim: "All the latter (that is, the defending kings) joined forces in the Valley of Siddim - now the Dead Sea." The phrase "now the Dead Sea" was apparently added by the chronicler to identify the area of conflict. The Jordan River evidently flowed through the Valley of Siddim and exited into the Wadi Arabah. It watered the valley and provided for its luxuriant conditions. The Haggadah observes that the fertility of the valley was due to a network of canals which later became the bases for the Dead Sea. It was a well-irrigated land, for according to Genesis, "Lot looked about and saw how thoroughly watered was the whole Jordan plain, all the way to Zoar." It is generally agreed that Zoar was in the southernmost part of what is now the shallow part of the Dead Sea, somewhere near the Lisan or tongue of land which juts out into the sea. It was to Zoar that Lot retreated in order to escape from the oncoming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Some catastrophic event must have caused the geological fault which runs through and underlies the area to displace, the ground sinking in the process, and forming a seal to allow the accumulation of water from the inflow of the Jordan River. Josephus in his Antiquities asserts that the lake was formed after the destruction of Sodom. When the eastern kings invaded Palestine, "they pitched camp at the Vale called the Slime Pits for at that time there were pits in that place; but now, upon the destruction of the city of Sodom, that Vale became the lake Asphaltitis, as it is called." Lake Asphaltitis was the Roman name for the Dead Sea. LOCATION OF THE FIVE CITIES OF THE VALLEY OF SIDDIM The five cities which were destroyed in the Valley of Siddim are given as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboyim, and Zoar or Bela. These cities were not only linked geographically but also commercially and seemed to be a trading consortium. Except for Zoar, they were all located in the northern part of what is now the Dead Sea. When Abraham and Lot separated their forces, Genesis makes it clear that Lot took his troops to the east, that is, the northern part of the valley. As Genesis expressed it:
Eastward could only be in the direction of Jericho, the city which marks the northern edge of the present Dead Sea. Eighteen years later when the cities were destroyed in a cataclysmic explosion, Abraham observed the results from a mountain top near Hebron, only fifteen miles away. The disaster occurred at dawn. That morning Abraham hurried to the mountain top and as Genesis says,
Hebron is due west from En-Gedi and the central part of the Dead Sea. The area of destruction witnessed by Abraham must have been the area in the northern and central part of the valley. Abraham looked towards the Plain and no mention is made of a body of water. In fact, nowhere in the account of the invasion of the eastern kings nor in the destruction of the cities is any reference made explicitly or implied to the existence of a body of water that could be interpreted as an inland sea. WHO WAS THE ACTUAL LEADER OF THE INVADING ARMY? According to Genesis, the invading kings were Amraphael, King of Shinar, Arioch, King of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, King of Elam, and Tidal, King of Goyim. Persistent historical research through the years has not been able to associate these monarchs with known Mesopotamian regents either through linguistic affinities or chronological associations. [Comment: This lack of historical mention of these kings in Mesopotamia once again reflects the problems pointed out by Dr. Velikovsky in his reconstruction of ancient history in his Ages In Chaos series.] Shinar of course is Sumer; the land of Ellasar is not identified; Elam is the eastern neighbor of Sumer and traditionally its rival; Goyim is the same as the Hebrew word for "nations" and presumably means he led a polyglot group. According to the Genesis account, Chedorlaomer was the leader of the invading group. Although it makes Chedorlaomer the leader of the invasion, there are many uncertainties arising from the Genesis text and the writings of Josephus, the only other religious source of the invasion. He calls them Assyrian kings and lists them in the following order: Amraphael, Arioch, Chedorlaomer, and Tidal. It would seem he listed them in what he considered their rank of importance. It is also pertinent that the opening sentence of Genesis 14 which provides the account of the invasion also lists them in the same order as Josephus with Amraphael given first and Chedorlaomer third. With that introductory statement, Genesis adds that the cities of the valley had served Chedorlaomer for 12 years, and that Chedorlaomer and the allied kings invaded in the 14th year. Genesis gives their battle order in the Valley of Siddim as Chedorlaomer, Tidal, Amraphael, and Arioch. The next reference in Genesis 14 mentions Abraham’s victory over Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him. So while the Hebrew chroniclers explicitly state that the invasion was under the leadership of the King of Elam, it is not completely clear that this was actually so, and one is forced to believe that somewhere along the line someone tampered with the text. We are faced with the fact that Amraphael, by virtue of being the King of Shinar (Sumer) would logically be the choice to head the expedition. Apparently something is amiss in the Genesis account, and it may be that the Hebrew chroniclers purposely diluted the role of the King of Sumer for reasons of their own, presumably political. The relations of the Sumerian cities with that of Elam were often tempestuous. Elam was a traditional rival and a persistent threat to the cities of Mesopotamia. By virtue of the assignment of the lands after the Deluge, Elam was assigned to Ninurta, the chief military aide of Enlil. [Comment: The forces of Baron Ninurta were used extensively in the war to recover the MEs from Baron Marduk and Baroness Sarpanit and restore the legitimate Emperor and Empress to the throne. In my opinion, Baron Ninurta is reflected in Greek mythology as the God Typhon or Vulcan and in Egyptian mythology as the God Ptah. His Imperial Consort was the Baroness Bau, the Greek Athena, the Nibiruan "Goddess of War."] In the Sumerian King List, Elam is not listed as one of the cities receiving the kingship and stood out of the pale of legitimate cities. Only the cities of Mesopotamia that were under the aegis of Nannar/Sin were allowed to become capital cities. The only reference to Elam in the King List is not a happy one; one of the early kings of Kush is reported to have "smote the weapons of the land of Elam." It is possible that Amraphael had to come to terms with the city of Elam so as not to leave this powerful adversary at his back in Mesopotamia when he took an expedition far away to the Western Lands. Amraphael and Chedorlaomer would thus be co-leaders of the expedition as suggested by the Biblical accounts. Of the dynasties of Mesopotamia that could have produced the invasion king, the Third Dynasty of Ur seems the most probable. It is generally agreed that the Akkad Dynasty was much too early to coincide with the days of Abraham. In the interim period after the fall of the Akkad Dynasty, the land of Mesopotamia suffered severe disruptions and depredations at the hands of the Gutian hordes who had descended from the surrounding mountains. These intervening yeas can be eliminated as producing a candidate for our purpose since the Gutian kings were not strong enough to consolidate the cities of Mesopotamia much less mount an invasion to the west. [Comment: Once again we see problems with the chronology. It is unfortunate that Dr. Velikovsky died before he was able to record his theories on the period preceding the critical year of 1587 BCE. And as one who myself long ago attempted to sort out the Mesopotamian chronology prior to that date, I can state that this research is extremely difficult because of the lack of coherent, interconnected historical data. Biblical history is much clearer in its historical framework, but it lacks the supporting links to other histories and is hampered by the fact that the Hebrews called the kings of Assyria and Egypt by names other than their real ones in use in the countries from which they ruled. A modern analogy can be made here: what we refer to as "Egypt" is known by its own Arab citizens as "Misr," which is of no linguistic relation to the word Egypt.] It was one of their puppet kings, one Utu-Hegal, who rebelled and finally rid the country of the Gutian occupation. In turn, he appointed a military governor at Ur, later to assume the throne name of Ur-Nammu, who usurped the authority of Utu-Hegal and seized control of the Mesopotamian states thereby founding what is known as the Third Dynasty of Ur. This dynasty was followed by the First Babylonian Dynasty, and it is generally agreed that this dynasty is much too recent to be co-existent with the days of Abraham. In this respect, the Third Dynasty of Ur has been the choice of most scholars. According to the Sumerian King List, the kings which followed the defeat of the Gutians were as follows:
The reign of Ur-Nammu is believed to have begun in 2103 BC and the dynasty ended in 1995 BC. Of these kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur, one is sought who fits the requirements based on explicit statements in Genesis 14:
Therefore, our analysis requires a king who reigned at last fourteen years, preferably a little longer. This would allow sufficient time for the monarch to invade the Western Lands, impose his will on the cities of the valley for thirteen years, and invade again to subdue the rebellious cities. The second requirement is that there be a period of disintegration before his reign. He would need several years to pacify and regain control of the city states of Mesopotamia before he could turn his attention to reclaiming the distant cities, the colonies of Sargon the Great which had become independent during the chaotic period of the Gutian rule. The third factor concerns a king who would die on a foreign expedition and be brought back hastily by his troops thereby aborting the invasion to a certain degree. In summary, these parameters require a king who ruled for at least 14 years, preferably a little longer, whose reign came at the end of a period of chaos and disintegration of the empire, and who died suddenly and unexpectedly while on an expedition to the distant mountain land. There is only one ruler of the Third Dynasty that meets all these requirements, and that one is Ur-Nammu, the founder of the dynasty. THE RISE AND FALL OF UR-NAMMU Ur-Nammu ruled 18 years according to the King List. His short reign was due to his dying prematurely on an expedition. It is estimated that he overthrew Utu-Hegal in 2103 at which time he moved the capital city to Ur. The return of the kingship to the legitimate Sumerian kings after the hundred years of rule by the barbarian Gutians is described in a biographical poem about Utu-Hegal where in he describes how he went before the shrines of the gods Ishkur (Adad) and Utu (Shamash) and requested their help in dislodging the Gutians and expelling them from the lands of Mesopotamia. The moon god Nannar (Sin) is strangely absent from this poem and his omission is quite significant. The fact that Utu-Hegal did not suffix his name with that of Sin as did the subsequent kings of the dynasty may be a clue to his character - his overriding ambition and supreme ego which brought on his downfall. Subsequent rulers of the dynasty, such as Amar-Sin, Shu-Sin, and Ibbi-Sin, were careful to attach the deity’s name to their own, indicating not only the continuing support of the moon god and his priesthood, but also a careful and discreet precaution not to suffer the fate of Ur-Nammu. Sumerian cities were ruled by different aristocracies and priesthoods, which owed loyalty to a tutelary deity which supposedly protected the city from harm and supported the king in his many military ventures. Thus, the rise of a new king and the transfer to another city also meant a struggle in the ruling aristocracies which also resulted in a major change in the pantheon. The life and actions of Abraham are set against this political background, for Terah and Abraham served the ruling king of the city of Ur who was at that time Utu-Hegal. In 2106, when Terah and Abraham left Ur for Haran, the struggle for political control was coming to a climax. The support of Terah for Utu and Adad was becoming increasingly dangerous. A few years later they left Ur, and Utu-Nammu made his move and seized control of the government and moved his capital city to Abraham’s native city. After he had subdued the other cities of Mesopotamia and consolidated his power he turned his attention to trying to recover the lost colonies. In the year 2099, he sent or led an expedition to the cities in the west and re-established Sumerian control over the former empire that had become independent and rich during the past hundred years. He subdued the cities of the Valley of Siddim and forced a treaty on them securing their loyalty and tribute for the next twelve years. During these quiet years, Ur-Nammu turned his attention to internal affairs. Now that the empire had been recovered and tribute was pouring in, he was able to rebuild the roads and regain some of the former glory of the empire of Sargon. In a cuneiform tablet he boasted of his outstanding achievements during this period. According to his self-proclaimed deeds, available to us through copies provided by later scribal schools, Ur-Nammu succeeded in codifying the laws which had been suspended during the hundred years domination by the Gutians. These laws antedate the Code of Hammurabi and were the first code of laws known anywhere in the world. Ur-Nammu is also credited with building the great ziggurat at Ur upon which was dedicated the temple to the moon god Sin. [Comment: It appears that here we have a chronology problem again, as in many traditional accounts Hammurabi is placed quite a long time before the 21st Century BCE. Much additional chronological research still needs to be done to straighten out all of these seemingly conflicting timeframes.] Then for some reason, not provided by historical documents, the cities of the west refused to pay tribute and rebelled against the authority of their eastern masters. The instigator was presumably Adad whose influence over the Western Lands was quite strong. From Anatolia he ruled a Hittite empire that extended as far south as Jerusalem. He certainly must have considered the cities of the Valley of Siddim as his sphere of control, although eastern kings would certainly challenge this claim, for according to the division of the lands after the Deluge, the Western Lands had been assigned to Sin. Thus, in the year 2085, Ur-Nammu led a mixed army of 800,000 men to the west. He had several purposes - to seize or destroy the space facilities at Mount Sinai and Kadesh which had come under the control of Adad, to punish the cities of the valley who had rebelled, and to destroy the warrior god race, the Rephaim, who had also refuted their traditional allegiance to the east and thus presented a serious military threat to the empire. Genesis is quite unique in that it provides a description of the expedition of Ur-Nammu to the west, and delineates the route taken by the invaders:
Destroying this line of fortresses, the army headed for their main target which apparently was El-Paran and Kadesh in the northern Sinai "on the edge of the wilderness." It has been generally accepted that El-Paran was the main goal of the invading army, although the strategic of commercial importance of this city has not been fully explained. Swinging north through the Arabah, they attacked and reduced the citadel of En-Gedi, formerly called Hazazon-Tamor, which protected the southern approaches to the Valley of Siddim. The kings brought their armies south to face the oncoming threat, or in the words of Genesis,
The battle was enjoined near an area of asphalt pits. Here the kings of the cities of the valley were soundly defeated. Many escaped to the surrounding hills, others were mired in the tar pits and cut down. Lot and his men were taken prisoner.
It is clear that the invaders did not intend to lay waste the rich commercial cities as they had done with the cities of the Rephaim. The cities were much too valuable as subservient commercial cities paying tribute to the city of Ur. On the other hand, the indulgence of the invaders may have been due to the haste in which they left the land of Palestine. After utterly defeating the defending troops, they looted the cities and took many prisoners, including Lot. Exiting through the Jordan River Valley, they were attacked by the forces of Abraham at Dan near the Sea of Galilee. Abraham fought them again near Damascus. As a result of these engagements, he liberated Lot and the other prisoners and recaptured the loot taken from the cities of the Plain. The army of Ur-Nammu at no time stopped and faced the enemy for reasons unknown, preferring to forfeit their hard-earned gains from Sodom and Gomorrah. In military travel procedure, the supply train, captured booty, and prisoners usually trail the main body of troops. It is clear that Abraham came into contact with the rear guard of the departing army and at no time did he face the main body of troops. WHY DIDN’T ABRAHAM CONFRONT THE INVADERS? It is mystery why Abraham remained at Hebron with his Egyptian and Anakim [Anunnaki] allies. Throughout the whole episode - the invasion through Trans-Jordan, the destruction of El-Paran and Kadesh, the battle of the Valley of Siddim - Abraham did not engage the enemy. Military strategy would dictate that he move his army south as the invaders entered the valley. He would then have been in a position to execute a classic pincer movement, bottling the valley at both ends. Abraham plainly expected the defense line of the Rephaim to hold the invaders or at least to slow them down. Later, he probably assumed that Lot and the armies of Sodom and Gomorrah could defend the narrow valley. It is also possible that Abraham expected a thrust up the Negev towards Jerusalem and waited at Hebron for the attack that never came. Belatedly he may have realized his mistake and chased after the departing armies. It is more probable that the awesome power demonstrated by the invaders gave Abraham reason for pause and he realized that he did not have the resources to meet the enemy head on. The invaders moved quickly and resolutely up through the Jordan Valley after looting the cities. They did not tarry and apparently bypassed other fortifications in the area such as Jericho. In fact, the exit through the Jordan Valley and up to Damascus seems more like a headlong flight to return to their homeland as rapidly as possible. Genesis observes that at this time Abraham decided to commit the troops under this command.
The size of Abraham’s pursuing army of 318 is unreasonably small, and the number may actually refer to the leaders or chieftains of armed groups or tribes. Hebron was a stronghold of the Anakim and while the assistance of these confederates or allies is not clear, their inclusion in the text would suggest that they supported Abraham in his pursuit of the invaders. These were large and fearsome warriors and presumably equipped with iron chariots. Abraham and his Anakim cavalry caught up with the rear guard of the army of Ur-Nammu at Dan. A second skirmish was fought near the city of Damascus and they managed to recover most of the booty and prisoners. It is strange that Ur-Nammu did not stand and fight. They would easily have defeated the small force of Abraham, yet they allowed him to seize their war prizes without a strong stand. Evidently, they were in no mood to fight and were in a precipitous haste to leave these lands and return home. It may be that the reason for their rush home was to convey the ill Ur-Nammu back to his capital. The translation of a cuneiform tablet provided by J. V. Kinnier Wilson in his book The Rebel Lands provides the story of the expedition of Ur-Nammu and his death in a foreign land. The tablet describes how he fell ill in "the mountain land" and was swiftly taken back to Ur where he was laid on a funeral bier at his palace in Ur. The people of Mesopotamia were in shock, for this was not supposed to happen in the cosmic scheme of things. The tablet complains how the king had been "abandoned on the battlefield like a crushed vessel." Although he had served the gods well, so went the complaint, they failed to stand by him in his time of need. Ur-Nammu may have been the victim of his own ambition. In a tablet commemorating the death of Ur-Nammu it is implied that he used mass destructive weapons whose use may have backfired and caused his death. He boasts of using "the mighty udug weapon" which is said to have "reduced the enemy land to dust," and to have "overlaid it with poison." There are references to a "fiery gas" which blew into the "house of the rebel lands." These are all symptoms and consequences of nuclear and chemical warfare weapons. Ur-Nammu not only caused his own sickness and death but devastated the lands of Trans-Jordan and the northern Sinai which caused them to remain unoccupied for hundreds of years. The cities of the Valley of Siddim had a short respite. The death of Ur-Nammu and the change of kingship, with the resultant disorganization, probably allowed them to continue their independent ways. But their doom was sealed. Eighteen years later the cities were destroyed in a cataclysmic explosion that also ruptured the geological fault that underlies the Jordan Valley, causing the ground to sink and seal off the effluence of the Jordan River. Thus, the Dead Sea was formed. THE QUIET YEARS 2084 - 2067, AND THE COMING STORM With the death of Ur-Nammu, his son Shulgi became king of Ur. He ruled for 48 years, bringing in a period of relative peace and prosperity for Sumer. Shulgi relentlessly expanded the limits of the empire over Elam and Anshan to the east and the Zagros Mountains to the north. Shulgi assumed divine status and used the dingir or star symbol before his name, just as Ur-Nammu had done. Having subdued the land to the east and north, a ruler of Shulgi’s ambition would certainly not have left the western provinces unsubordinated. The Scriptures do not reveal any political or military activity for this period, and it appears that the cities of the Valley of Siddim had returned to the aegis of the Mesopotamian kings and enjoyed prosperity under the tutelage of Shulgi. After the events of 2085, Abraham and his retinue settled among the Rephaim at Mamre near Hebron. Here he complained in an exchange with Yahweh or Adad that he had no offspring to continue the family line. Adad promised him a male heir and soon Ishmael was born of his Egyptian wife in the year 2082, three years after the invasion of Ur-Nammu. At this time Adad had apparently planned to perpetuate the line of Abraham through the Egyptian side, thereby indicating continued cordial relations with Egypt. [Comment: Once again, for unknown reasons, Boulay mistakenly equates Yahweh with Adad, rather than correctly with Crown-Prince Enlil.] Fourteen years later Isaac was born of Sarah, his second wife. Hagar was abruptly banished with the heir apparent Ishmael to the wilderness. In the intervening years, Adad must have changed his attitude and relations towards Egypt. The year before the destruction of Sodom, Adad made a new covenant with Abraham - this time choosing Isaac to perpetuate the line of Abraham. There is also a strong indication that Adad himself was the sire of Isaac. What caused the rift with Egypt and the start of a new dynasty under Isaac is not known, but the actions presumably were associated with the destruction of the cities of the valley the following year. The shift from Ishmael to Isaac is described in Genesis where the change of heart of Adad is described in his announcement to Sarah, that at the age of 90, she is to conceive and bear a son who will be the new heir. It is apparent that Adad wishes to make a new start without the aid of his Egyptian allies. Of this arrangement, Adad informs Abraham, "I will bless her; moreover, I will give you a son by her and; when I have blessed her, she shall give rise to nations." Taken literally, it means that Adad will be the sire of the son by Sarah. It was the policy of the Sumerian deities to mate with human women for the specific purpose of providing trusted personnel to run the empire, the aristocracy of kings, generals, priests, and other important functionaries. It was their way of assuring a race of demi-gods they could trust to carry out their wishes and be a barrier between them and ordinary humans. Adad was merely following the usual practice of the gods of Sumer. It explains Yahweh’s special concern for Isaac and his son Jacob in the Old Testament. As a sign of loyalty and a way to identify his supporters, and to remind them that they are directly descended from a reptilian god, the shedding of the foreskin, in the rite of circumcision, was introduced at this time. Symbolically, it represented the reptile’s sloughing of his skin and the act of renewing his life. It is also perhaps significant that at the time that Adad was telling Abraham of his new son and heir, he also disclosed his plans to destroy the cities of the valley. [Comment: As has been noted earlier in this commentary, the rite of circumcision could have been motivated for entirely different reasons. Perhaps it was a human act of rebellion against the covered genitalia of the Nibiruan Saurians, who loathed the "LuLu" human males, since as a result of the process of circumcision, the glans penis of the LuLu is always exposed to the air of Tiamat.] THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH In the Genesis account, three angels appeared to Abraham at Mamre to bring the news personally from Adad. The cities, they warned, would be destroyed unless Abraham could provide sufficient reason for not doing so. The angels flew over the cities in reconnaissance, "the men set out from there and looked down upon the face of Sodom." The messengers conducted an aerial survey of the cities presumably to warn any friends and allies of Abraham. Later, two of them went to Sodom to retrieve Lot and his family. These were "brought out and deposited" outside the city and warned to flee to the hills lest they be caught in the coming destruction. Lot and his family retreated to Zoar in the southern part of the valley, but warned that they were not safe even there, decided to head for the mountains. The description of the destruction is provided by Genesis and some added details from Josephus and the Haggadah. Genesis says,
In this account "sulfurous fire" came down from heaven. Josephus adds more information with the statement that the Lord "cast a thunderbolt upon the city and set it on fire with its inhabitants." In the Haggadah, this thunderbolt comes from the Shekinah, the aerial chariot of the Lord:
Lot and his family had been warned not to look behind them lest they be blinded by the flash of the explosion, probably nuclear in nature. The space ship of Adad or Yahweh had descended from the sky to fire a mass destructive type weapon to destroy the cities as well as the vegetation of the Plain. The force of the explosion or explosions was so great as to rupture the geological fault underlying the Valley of Siddim, dropping the valley floor and sealing the fault, thereby creating a large inland sea. At the time of the holocaust. Abraham was at Hebron where he climbed the highest point at dawn to witness the event. Hebron is only 15 miles [24 kms.] from the valley, and from his vantage point Abraham must have had an excellent view of the whole event:
Was it a mushroom-shaped cloud that Abraham witnessed, a nuclear holocaust that destroyed the cities of the Plain? Adad is the prime suspect as the culprit who destroyed the Valley of Siddim. The kings of the Third Dynasty considered these cities too valuable to destroy and preferred to bring them under their control and to collect tribute. On the other hand, Adad had good reason to destroy the cities. [Comment: Prince Ishkur Adad was allied with Crown-Prince Enlil during "The Pyramid Wars." Thus, even though Boulay is failing again to equate Yahweh with Enlil, at least there is nothing contradictory about which side of the war is undertaking this destruction.] He had failed in his attempt to protect the cities from the depredations of the eastern kings. He also failed to secure the space complex at Mount Sinai and the support complex at Kadesh, or to prevent their destruction. Seeing that they could not depend upon Adad or his resources to protect them from the eastern kings, and being practical commercial entities, the cities apparently decided to revert to the aegis of the eastern monarchs. Adad and Abraham had broken relations with Egypt, or perhaps it was the reverse - the Egyptians backing down from what they considered to be a bad alliance. Adad or Yahweh was known throughout the Old Testament as a vindictive and vengeful god. This appears to have been his last great act of vengeance. It also appears that Utu deserted Adad at this time. At first occupying Lebanon, Utu presumably shifted his space activities to the Mount Sinai complex after the destructive expedition of Naram-Sin. Now with both space complexes destroyed, he had no base of operations in the west and presumably returned to his home in Mesopotamia. This is indicated in the Haggadah where it comments that one of the reasons that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed was because they worshiped the sun and moon gods. It thus appears that these cities had transferred their allegiance to Sin, the moon god, and Shamash, the sun god, from that of Adad, known as the thunder god of the Western Lands. [Comment: All of this is somewhat confusing, contradicting the account by Zecharia Sitchin; and it will be interesting to your editor to compare the revised version of Boulay’s book with the account given here. And once again, let it be noted that following the destruction of the Sinai Spaceport facilities, by whoever did it, and your editor supports the idea that it was accomplished by Prince Utu at the behest of Air Commander Princess-Royal Inanna, the new space facilities were moved to the Plain of Nazca in modern-day Peru.] The ruin of the Valley of Siddim was the last of many devastations in the lands of the Levant. Earlier the cities of Ebla and Arman and the land of Lebanon had been destroyed. Then the cities of the Rephaim in the Trans-Jordan, the Mount Sinai/Kadesh complex and the defensive citadels of southern Palestine. Now the five cities of the Valley of Siddim disappeared in a fiery cloud and the land eventually flooded to become the Dead Sea. There was little of value left in the Western Lands. |
