Lives of Scripture

Shemeber, king of Zeboiim, was one of five kings of the Jordan plain -- alongside the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Bela (Zoar) -- named in Genesis 14. These five had served as vassals of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, for twelve years before rebelling in the thirteenth (14:1-4). In response, Chedorlaomer led a coalition of four eastern kings on a campaign that defeated a series of regional peoples before turning on the rebels. Shemeber and his allies met the invaders in battle in the Valley of Siddim, full of tar pits, and were routed; the text records that the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and fell into the pits, while the rest escaped to the hills (14:8-10). The victors plundered Sodom and Gomorrah's goods and provisions and carried off Lot, Abram's nephew, who was living in Sodom (14:11-12). Shemeber is never quoted or individually distinguished from his four allied kings; Scripture names him only as a participant and casualty of this coalition's defeat. But his defeat is the hinge of the chapter: it is what leads directly to Abram's armed pursuit and rescue of Lot, and to Abram's subsequent meeting with Melchizedek, king of Salem (14:13-20).