Shinab

Biblical Account

Shinab is named only once, in Genesis 14:2. The verse states only that he was king of Admah. Together with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar, he fought against the coalition of four kings led by Chedorlaomer king of Elam.

According to Genesis 14, these five kings served Chedorlaomer for twelve years and rebelled in the thirteenth year. When the coalition invaded in the fourteenth year, the five kings met them in battle in the vale of Siddim, "which is the salt sea" (the Dead Sea), but were defeated (Genesis 14:3–10). The text records that the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fell into the slime pits and that the rest fled to the mountain. In this war Lot, who lived in Sodom, was taken captive, and Abram (later Abraham) rescued him. Scripture records nothing further about Shinab's own actions or his fate.

Significance in the Bible

Shinab is a figure in the background of the narrative of Abram's rescue of Lot. Admah, the city he ruled, is mentioned in Genesis 10:19 as marking the border of the Canaanites. In Deuteronomy 29:23 and Hosea 11:8, it appears alongside Sodom and Gomorrah and Zeboiim as a city overthrown by God's wrath. Neither Shinab nor Admah is mentioned in the New Testament.

Interpretation and Debate

Jewish exegetical tradition sometimes assigned interpretive meanings to the names of the five kings. The medieval commentator Rashi is reported to have interpreted the name Shinab as meaning "one who hates his Father in heaven." This is a later interpretation, not something the text itself states. There is no consensus that the kings of Genesis 14 have been securely identified in ancient records outside the Bible, and scholars differ on how to understand the historical background of the chapter.

In the Korean Church

Shinab is rarely the subject of sermons or Sunday school lessons in his own right. He is generally mentioned only as one of the five kings when teaching on Genesis 14, the chapter in which Abram rescues Lot and meets Melchizedek.