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Birsha

King living at the time of the Patriarchs

Birsha was the king of Gomorrah when Chedorlaomer and his allies invaded the region.

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Birsha was the king of Gomorrah during the time of Abraham (Gen. 14:2). He was one of the five kings of the cities of the plain who rebelled against Chedorlaomer, the king of Elam, after serving him for twelve years. In response, Chedorlaomer and his allies invaded the region, defeating the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela (Zoar) in the Valley of Siddim. The invaders seized the goods and food of Sodom and Gomorrah, and took captives, including Abraham's nephew Lot. This event prompted Abraham to mount a rescue mission, where he successfully defeated Chedorlaomer and his allies, freeing Lot and recovering the stolen goods (Gen. 14:13-16). The mention of Birsha as the king of Gomorrah provides historical context to the biblical narrative and highlights the political dynamics of the region during Abraham's time.

Bible dictionary

Birsha Easton Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897)

Son of wickedness, a king of Gomorrah whom Abraham succoured in the invasion of Chedorlaomer (Gen. 14:2).

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Birsha Smith Smith’s Bible Dictionary (1863)

(son of godlessness), a king of Gomorrah. (Genesis 14:2)

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Birsha Hitchcock Hitchcock’s Bible Names Dictionary (1869)

an evil; a son who beholds

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Birsha Hastings Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible (1898)

BIR'SHA (son of godlessness), a king of Gomorrah. Gen 14:2.

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Birsha Schaff Schaff’s Dictionary of the Bible

BIR'SHA (son of godlessness), a king of Gomorrah. Gen 14:2.

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Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.

Where Birsha appears

1 verse in 1 book · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H1306

Genesis1

Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.