Shinab

Shinab (meaning: cooling or father's tooth) was the king of Admah, one of the five cities of the plain of the Dead Sea region, who joined the coalition that rebelled against Chedorlaomer and the four eastern kings in the battle of the vale of Siddim described in Genesis 14:2. After twelve years of vassalage to Chedorlaomer, the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela (Zoar) revolted in the thirteenth year, precipitating the military campaign that led to their defeat and the capture of Lot.

Shinab and his allies were routed at the vale of Siddim, with many of their forces falling into the bitumen pits that characterized the area. The Admah he ruled is known from the prophetic literature as one of the cities destroyed alongside Sodom and Gomorrah (Deuteronomy 29:23; Hosea 11:8), and the divine mercy that spared Israel from such a fate is evoked in Hosea's tender portrayal of God's reluctance to destroy Ephraim as he destroyed Admah. Shinab himself does not reappear in the biblical narrative after Genesis 14.