Zuzim Ommaeans

—a word of unknown origin, denoting a tribe or people mentioned in the Bible only once, namely in the book of Genesis (14:5), where it is said that Chedorlaomer, together with other kings, struck down, among other peoples, the Zuzim in Ham. It is difficult to determine the region in which this ancient people lived; however, it probably lay a little to the north of the Arnon. The obscurity of this passage in Genesis is somewhat clarified by the Syriac translation of Genesis 14:5: “They struck,” it says there, “a mighty people who dwelt in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Ammonites who dwelt in Shaveh Kiriathaim, and a valiant people who were found among them (that is, presumably the Zuzim in Ham).” From this it is not improbable that Ham is identical with Ammon, and from this it may be concluded with some plausibility that the Zuzim lived in the land of the Ammonites.

The obscurity of these most ancient names and references in the book of Genesis is itself, so to speak, a remarkable testimony to the extreme antiquity of the narrative. The philological difficulties presented by many of these names likewise serve, for scholarly critics, as a notable confirmation of the authenticity and truth of the sacred narrative: “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand for ever” (Isaiah 40:8).